INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 257 



26. Nettion albigulare. 



T/te Oceanic or Amlaman 'real.* 



Mareca jmnctatu, Bail, " 8tr. Foatlu", I, p. 88. 



Mareca alh/gularis, Hume, " Str. Feath.", I, p. 303. 



AJareca (jihher'/frons, Hume, " Nosts and Eggs", p. G44 ; /V/., Cat., No. 

 ^d^i'o, ter ; Hume and Marshall, '^ Game Birds of India", III, p. 243 ; 

 Hums, " Nosts and Eggs ", (Gates' edition), III, p. 290. 



Nettion albi(jidan% iSalvadori, Cat., " Bird of British Museum", 

 XXVII., p. 257, 



Nettiam albigulare, Blanford, "Avifauna of British India", IV, p. 444. 



Description : Adult Male. — " U])per part of the head brown ; this 

 colour also covers the up[)er parts of the cheeks and gradutdly changes 

 into the white of the lower parts of the cheeks and throat ; the brown 

 of the cheeks with obsolete dusky streaks ; round the eye there is a 

 ring of white feathers ; in some specimens on the lores and at the base of 

 the bill there are some white feathers ; upper parts brown, the edges 

 of the feathers of the back and scapulars pale brown ; nnnp uniform, 

 the feathers of the breast and abdomen pale brown in the centre, and 

 broadly margined with brownish fawn-colour, producing a mottled ap- 

 pearance ; under tail coverts brown, almost unifonn ; upper wing 

 coverts dark brown, greater or last row of wing coverts white, forming 

 a band, diminishing in breadth and tinged with brown inwardly ; 

 speculum velvety black, with a longitudinal, coppery-green band in 

 the middle, from the seventh to the ninth secondaiy, and bounded on the 

 tip with a buff baud ; the first secondary broadly white on the outer 

 web ; tertials broadly velvety black on the outer web ; primari^^s brown 

 with an olive lustre ; under wing coverts brown, the median ones 

 tipped with white ; axillaries white ; tail brown" (Salvadori). 



" Legs and feet greenish- blue to plumbeous ; webs usually darker ; 

 claw^s horny ; bill greenish-blue, plumbeous or plumboous-blue, nail 

 black ; in some the lower mandible tinged with, in one the terminal 

 two-thirds of this, pink ; irides reddish-brown to deep brownish-red." 



*' Length 16" to 18" ; expanse 24-5" to 27" ; tail from vent 4" to 

 4-2" ; wing 7-5" to 8" ; tarsus I'S" to 1'4" ; bill at front 1-4" to 1-5" ; 



* As the trivial Dame for N. glhbi-rifiom will probably remain THE OCEANiC Teal, 

 it may be as well that B'aDford'd t'erm, the Andaman Teai> be accepted finally for 

 this fi>rm of Nvttion. 



