Fuligula cristata, Leach,
Vernacular Namos.—[Dubaru. Ablac, N.-W. Provinces; Malac, Nepal Terai;
Turdndo Sindh ; Nulla diilluwa, (Telegu) ; Neer-bathoo, (Tamil) ; Neer-kolec,
(Canarese) ; Sonah, Ablak, Kabul ; ]
9ERY rarely seen in the Himalayas,-)' the Tufted
Pochard is rather thinly distributed in the cold
season over the Punjab and the Doab, is scarce in
Rajputana, more common in Rohilkhand and Oudh,
and less so again in the Central Provinces and Bundclkhand.
In Sindh it is not very abundant ; in Cutch rare ;
in Kathiawar and Gujerat, in the Central India Agency,
Khandesh and the Dcccan fairly common.
In Bengal, Cis-lirahmaiHitra.it has been noticed in many districts,
but I believe it to be rather scarce there, though my information
on the subject is scant. Damant records it, and some of
Godwin-Austen's people procured it from Manipur ; but I have
no other information as to its occurrence east of the Brahmaputra,
whether in Assam, Cachar, Sylhet, Tipperah, Chittagong
or any portion of British Burma. I do not doubt that it
straggles into many of these, but the fact has yet to be ascertained.
It occurs, in places in very large flocks, in Chota Nagpur, the
Northern Circars and the Nizam's Dominions, straggling by the
way at times into the Southern Konkan. It has been shot near
Bellary, and certainly though rare there, visits Mysore ; but
south of this I have heard of it nowhere in the Peninsula,
* On account of its bright yellow iris, this species is often called " Tut; GOLDENEYE
or " TUB INDUX GOLDEN-EYE but the (rue Golden-Eye, (the species to be
nest dealt with), belongs to a quite distinct genus, and this name, commonly as it is
applied out here, should be dropped in favour of the old-established English name,
" The Tufted L'ochard." No doubt in Europe they call it the " The Tufted Duc&,"
but it is a true Pochard, and I have therefore modified the name accordingly.
+ This species has not been recorded fioin Kaslnuii (though I should expect it
to occur there) I have never myself met with il in, or received it from any part of,
these mountains. Hodgson only got it in the Nepal Terai. Scully never saw it in
the hill portion of Nepal. Put Maiulellt obtained several specimens in the interior of
Native Sikhim in the coarse of ten years' collecting. ,