S50 JOUnXAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



Tlte nesil'ing " is yollowish-wliite on tlie under parts, bnfF on tlie 

 forehead and throat ; a dark brown streak from the forehead to the 

 crown : which with the ujtper parts is brown ; a dark hjcal streak and 

 two other streaks from behind the eye to the nape on each side" 

 (Yarrell). 



The drakes when the}' arrive in India are often in a beautiful transi- 

 tion staoo and few will be found in perfect male plumage before 

 January. I have a most handsome young male in my collection 

 which is a very good example of the changing plumage ; above it is 

 like the female but without the broad edging to the feathers, and on 

 the rump and upper tail coverts are a few feathers shewing the beauti- 

 ful black and white vermiculations. The head is dark brown with the 

 merest trace only of the l)l:ick eye-streak ; the under plun^age is pure 

 white, but all along the flanks, vent and under tail coverts and here and 

 there on the abdomen are still left feathers of the old plumage which 

 are a bright rufous-buflf. The new feathers of the flanks are like 

 those of the adult male, and the breast is beautifully spotted 

 with distinct oval drops ; the upper breast and neck is a dull 

 rufous. 



From the above description it may be seen that it does not follow 

 that because one year a bird has rufous or rufescent plumage he 

 will have the same again after the next moult. In the bird just 

 described the new plumage is a very pure white, but the 

 old patches are exceptionally bright rufous. From this we might 

 infer that the habitat and its water has much to do with the 

 coloration of the lower parts, yet a female in new plumage shot 

 with this young male is very rufous indeed. 



The Common Teal extends throughout the Palroarctic region in the 

 summer, breeding as far south, according to Hume, as the 40° 

 Korth Latitude, and migrating south during the cold weather into 

 Northern Africa as far as Abyssinia on the east and Wad an on the 

 west, practically the whole of Southern Asia, and the Atlantic coast of 

 Morth America. It occurs, though rarely, in Greenland. 



In British ludia it is found everywhere with very few exceptions. 

 From the extreme north down to Cape Comorin it is very abundant, 

 though perhaps more so to the north than to the south, but even there 

 it is spoken of as appearing in flocks of hundreds. 



