220 ANATID^. 



•wing-speculum on the secondaries dark glossy green, bounded below 

 by a narrow whitish band at the tip of the secondaries ; tertials 

 very long and narrow, sickle-shaped, with the shafts whitish, the 

 webs velvety glossy black, the edges and part of the inner webs 

 grey ; quills dark grey, almost blackish towards the tip ; under 

 wing-coverts white, bat the greater ones grey; axillaries white; 

 tail-feathers grey, with narrow white edges : bill greenish black ; 

 feet dull blue-grey, darker on the web ; iris brown. Total length 

 19 inches, wing 10, tail 3, culmen 1-8, tarsus 1-35. 



Adult female. Head striped with blackish, each feather margined 

 with fulvous ; sides of the face and neck lighter, dotted with small 

 black points and stripes ; feathers of the back black, varied with 

 rufous V-shaped marks and edges ; rump blackish ; upper breast 

 and sides rufous, with black crescentic bars ; lower breast and 

 abdomen white, with black crescentic bars or spots, but almost 

 uniform in the middle ; under tail-coverts reddish, with blackish 

 marks ; upper wing-coverts dusky grey, the greater row whitish at 

 the tip ; wing-speculum black, faintly glossed with green ; primaries 

 greyish browu ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white ; tail-feathers 

 brown-grey, with reddish edges : bill, feet, and irides as in the male. 



The female resembles that of CJicndelasmusstrejjenis, but differs in 

 having the visible portion of all the later secondaries black, with a 

 metallic green reflection, narrowly tipped with white, and the terminal 

 portion of their greater coverts, or last row of the wing-coverts, 

 whitish, while in the female Gadwall the entire visible portions of 

 the later secondaries are pure white, aiid the terminal portion of 

 their greater coverts black. Besides, the tail-feathers of E.falcata 2 

 are almost uniform brown-grey, except the reddish edges, while in 

 the female Gadwall the outer tail-feathers are whitish, with 

 irregular brown marks. Finally, the upper mandible of the female 

 E. falcata is uniformly dark coloured, whereas in the female 

 Gadwall it is only dark along the culmen and the remainder pale. 



Hah. Eastern Asia and Japan ; it seldom straggles into the 

 Western Palsearctic Eegion. 



