GARGANEY. 31 



The adult drake, in winter, has the head and neck greyish 

 brown with darker speckles and most of the upper parts dark 

 brown with crescentic grey markings ; the wing-coverts are 

 dark chestnut shading to black, the speculum black and white ; 

 the inner secondaries are noticeably pointed, and the upper 

 and under tail-coverts conspicuously velvet-black. The breast 

 is dark brown with pale markings shading to the whitish 

 abdomen, and the grey pencilling of the flanks commands 

 attention. In May an eclipse dress is assumed, approaching 

 that of the duck, but the chestnut coverts are retained. The 

 bill is lead-blue, the nail black, the legs dark orange, and the 

 irides brown. The duck is a browner bird, and the feather 

 centres and markings are more pronounced ; she lacks the 

 chestnut on the wing and her under tail-coverts are speckled 

 with grey and brown. Her bill is darker and banded laterally 

 with dull orange. Immature birds have reddish-brown marks 

 on the head and neck, and though young drakes are said to 

 resemble the duck, one, shot in August, that I examined in the 

 flesh, showed chestnut on the wing-coverts, and its under tail- 

 coverts were thickly mottled with black. The bill was dull 

 orange, black in the centre, the legs yellowish, and the webs 

 dusky. Length, 20 ins. Wing, 10-5 ins. Tarsus, r8 ins. 



Gar^aney. Qucrquedula querguedula (Linn.). 



South of the Arctic circle the Garganey breeds throughout 

 the Palaearctic region, and in winter visits tropical Africa and 

 southern Asia. Its range is rather more southerly than that of 

 the other surface-feeding ducks. To England it is a summer 

 visitor, for it breeds regularly in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Kent, 

 and has, within recent years, nested in other counties, even 

 so far north as Durham and west as Somerset. Elsewhere in 

 England and Wales, and in Scotland and Ireland, it is a rare 

 and irregular visitor on spring migration ; few are noticed 

 on the leiurn passage, and in winter it is most unusual. 



