| OCR Text |
1882.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON AN AUSTRALIAN DUCK. 453 tanea) in female plumage or non-nuptial dress, but which at the time of writing I believed to be Anas gibberifrons. I added that we had obtained several pairs out of the lot, and that we expected that some of them would breed with us that year. They did not breed with us in 1880 nor in 1881, although we had six pairs established in various parts; but this year we have been more fortunate. The pair of these birds placed in what we call the " Waders' Pond " nested the end of March last, and hatched out four nice young birds on the 21st ult., which are still all alive and thriving. There is no longer any doubt therefore that we have here to deal with a species which, however much it may resemble the female of Anas castanea, is quite distinct, and of which the sexes, as may be proved by the examination of our breeding birds, are very nearly alike, the female being merely slightly smaller in size and duller in plumage. It is, in fact, the species described in the ' Ibis' for 1869 by Dr. Buller, from New-Zealand specimens, as Anas gracilis, but subsequently identified by Dr. Finsch (Ibis, 1869, p. 380) with Anas gibberifrons, S. Miiller1. As regards the synonyms of this species, after the positive statement of Dr. Finsch and Prof. Schlegel, I think we can hardly accept Prof. Hutton's unsupported opinion that " A. gracilis is distinct from A. gibberifrons"'2; and I shall therefore insert our birds in the next edition of the Catalogue of Vertebrates as Anas gibberifrons. The following, if this view is correct, are the principal references to this species. ANAS GIBBERIFRONS. (Plate XXXIII.) Anas (Mareca) gibberifrons, Mull. Nat. Gesch. Land- en Volkenk. p. 159 (1841). Anas gibberifrons, Schl. Mus. d. P. B. Anseres, p. 58(1866). Anas gracilis, Buller, Ibis, 1869, p. 41. Anas (Querquedula) gibberifrons, Finsch, Ibis, 1869, p. 380. Mareca gibberifrons, Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 102 (1872) ; Ibis, 1873, p. 321. Mareca albogularis, Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 303. Querquedula gibberifrons, Buller, B. of N. Z. p. 251 (1873). Anas gracilis, Hutton, Trans. N.-Zeal. Inst. xii. p. 271 (1880). Anas gibberifrons, Scl. P. Z. S. 1880, p. 519. Anas gibberifrons, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S.W. iii. p. 38. To the localities given by Finsch (I. s. c.) may be added Andamans (Ball and Ramsay). Five pairs of this Duck are still living in the Society's Gardens, besides two odd ones, believed to be females. Five of them died in 1 First discovered by Salomon Miiller in Timor, and originally described by him in a footnote to his volume on the " Land- en-Volkenkunde" of the Dutch Colonial possessions as Anas (Mareca) gibberifrons. 2 In his article on Anas gracilis, Buller. Trans. N.-Zeal. Inst. xii. p. 271 (1879). |
