GARGANEY . 299 



drooping scapulars, black with a white line down the middle ; the 

 wood-brown breast, with dark crescentic markings to the feathers ; the 

 glossy, greyish-green " speculum " between two white bars, formed by 

 the tips of the secondaries themselves and their greater coverts ; the 

 fine grey and white lacing of the flanks, terminating in a double white 

 and grey band, divided by a black line ; and the white abdomen, 

 mottled with brown near the vent. In the non-breeding dress the 

 drake is distinguishable from his partner by the feathers of the neck, 

 which remain much the same as in the breeding-costume, and also by 

 the fuller development of the wing-" speculum." The duck is somewhat 

 smaller, and has the crown dusky, the sides of the face and neck pale 

 brown flecked with dusky, the feathers of the back and flanks dusky 

 with pale brown margins, the fore part of the breast pale brown with 

 dusky mottlings, the remainder of the under-parts white, the wing- 

 coverts ashy brown washed with grey, and the " speculum " represented 

 by a touch of bronzy green between two white bars. The downy 

 dress of the duckling is dark brown above and yellowish white beneath, 

 with a broad buff streak above the eye, bordered below and above by 

 a dark stripe. 



Although in England generally seen in pairs, garganey in India 

 associate in flocks, frequently of large size, which usually keep to the 

 edges of lakes and marshes, and feed mostly at night ; their diet 

 consisting chiefly of various kinds of water-plants. In their rate of 

 flight, which is noiseless, they are decidedly inferior to teal ; and their 

 call-note is a somewhat subdued but harsh " quack," common to both 

 sexes, while in the breeding-season the male also utters a louder and 

 more grating cry. Rushes near water form the favourite site for the 

 nest, which at the proper season contains a clutch of from six to about 

 a dozen creamy-white eggs, each measuring just short of 2 inches in 

 its larger diameter. 



Examples of the North American garganey, or blue-winged teal 

 {Qiiej-quedula discors), have been recorded from Yorkshire in 1852, 

 Dumfriesshire in 1858, and Cambridgeshire in 1889; but as the 

 species is frequently imported alive into Great Britain, it is impossible 

 to be sure that these were not " escapes." The American bird is 

 distinguishable by the bright smoke-blue of the upper wing-coverts, and 

 the presence of a crescentic white band between the e)-es and the 

 beak in the drake. 



