24 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII ^ 



it is also of oourso, as far as the Indian species is concerned, a bigger bird 

 tlian an}' of the two last-mentioned genera. 



There are only two species of the present genus, onr bird, the Gadwall, 

 and Ch'ndelasmns coues'i^ a mucli snitiller bird, confined to the Washing- 

 ton and New York Islands and the Fanning group, a bird of which very 

 little is yet known. 



22. Chaulelasmus strbpertts. 

 Tlte Gaihcall. 



Chaulelasmus slrepevus. — Jerdon, "Birds of India," Ilf, p. 802; 

 Hume, " Str. Foath." VII, p. 115 ; id., Cat., No. 901 ; Scully, 

 "Str. Feath." VIII, p. 3G2 ; Hume and Marsliall, "Game 

 Birds," III, p. 181 ; Gates, " Birds of British Burmali," II, p. 283 ; 

 Barnes, "Birds of Bombay," p. 405; Salvadori, "Birds of British 

 Museum," XXVII, p. 221 ; Blanford, " Birds of India," IV, p. 440. 



Description: Adult Male. ~ Head and neck whitish, rufous- white or dull 

 rufous, densely speckled with brown, except on the chin, which is almost 

 pure white in highly plumaged birds ; the anterior portions of the head 

 nearly always lighter than the posterior in ground-colour, which shades 

 otf' into the brown of the nape, on which the darker spots hardly show ; 

 lower nook, back, and scapulars deep blackish-brown to dark rufous-brown, 

 every feather beautifully waved with white crescentic lines ; lower back 

 darker, with fewer and finer venniculations, sometimes almost 

 unmarked, changing into the black of the rump and upper tail coverts ; 

 central rectrices gro}', outer ones rufous-grey with almost white edges, 

 generally increasing in width to the outermost ones ; breast, sides of the 

 body and flanks like the back, but the breast more holdhj marked with the 

 dark and light, an(l the vent portion flanks more finely so ; rest of the 

 abdomen, etc., white ; under tail coverts typically the same velvety- 

 black as the upper, but often splashed with patches of black and white 

 vermiculations ; the smallest wing coverts like the scapulars; the median 

 and primary greater coverts chestnut, with the bases brown and white, 

 sometimes showing ; greater coverts nest the secondaries black ; secon- 

 daries pure grey, silvery towards the tips ; a speculum formed by the 

 outer secondaries, four or five glossy velvety black and throe with hroad 

 pure white outer webs, the one next the black often with a narrow black 

 edge ; primaries brown-grey, darkest at the tips ; shoulder of wing and 

 under winii coverts white. 



