INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 595 



Description : Adult Male. — Whole head reddish-bay, richest and 

 darkest on the under surface and sides, paling from the forehead to 

 the end of the crest where it is reddish-buff. Neck blackish-brown ; 

 upper back dark brown, getting more and more pale towards the rump, 

 the bases of the feathers next the scapulars shewing in a white band ; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts blackish-brown, more or less glossed green ; 

 tail silvery-grey brown ; breast blackish-brown paling on the lower 

 breast and abdomen ; under tail-coverts dark brown ; flanks, ascillaries 

 and under wing-coverts white ; coverts bordering the wing and run- 

 ning into the scapulars white ; other coverts greyish-brown ; secondaries 

 white, sometimes tinged grey or creamy, with a sub-terminal band of 

 brown from 25" to 4" wide ; inner secondaries like the coverts ; outer- 

 most primary brown on the outer web and inside of the inner web 

 and tip, the remainder white, this white gradually increasing in extent 

 on each primary until the innermost primaries are all white with a 

 broad brown tip. 



Bill vermilion-red ; the nail whitish tinged pink or sometimes yel- 

 lowish, the base next the feathers of the forehead, and the gape 

 more or less dusky brown except in the oldest birds ; legs and feet 

 orange, orange-red or dull fleshy-red ; irides deep or light or reddish- 

 brown to bright light red. 



" In the adult male, the bill is a brilliant crimson, sometimes inclin- 

 ing to vermilion ; the nail brown or white, tinged with brownish horn, 

 or pink horny brown or yellow at tip. There is ofien a dusky shade 

 round the nostrils ; the gape is often blackish as is likewise the base of 

 the lower mandible and the basal portion of the membrane between its 

 rami ; but these are all traces, 1 think, of immaturity." 



" The legs and feet are dingy salmon-colour or reddish-orange, dusky 

 on the joints and blackish on the webs ; but in slightly younger but full 

 plumaged birds, the legs and feet will be olivaceous-orange, or lastly, 

 dusky with a reddish tinge." 



" The irides vary from brown to red (this latter being the colour in the 

 old adult) and are at different ages, brown, brownish-yellow, reddish- 

 brown, orange, orange-red and bright red." 



" Length 20-5" to 22-1" ; expanse 34-0" to 38-2"; wing 10*0" to 

 10-75" ; tail from vent 3*0" to 4-2" ; tarsus 1'5" to 1-7" ; bill from gape 

 2*3" to 2-42" ; weight 1 lb. 12 ozs. to 2 lbs. 14 ozs." (Hume). 



