TEASER— TECTRICES 949 



by the absence of tbe upper buff line on the side of the head and 

 of the white scapular stripe, while he presents a whitish crescentic 

 bar on the sides of the lower neck just in front of the wings. 



Species more or less allied to these two are found in most other 

 parts of the world, and among such species are some (for instance, 

 the A. gibherifrons of the Australian region and the A. eatoni of 

 Kerguelen Island) in which the male wears almost the same incon- 

 spicuous plumage as the female. But the determination of the 

 birds which should be technically considered " Teals," and belong 

 to the subgenus Nettium (generally misspelt Nettion), as distinguished 

 from other groups of Anatinse, is a task not yet accomplished, and 

 confusion has possibly been caused by associating with them such 

 species as the Garganey (p. 309) and its probable allies of the 

 group Querquedula. Others again have not yet been discriminated 

 from the WiGEONS, the Pintails (p. 726), or even from the typical 

 form of Anas, into each of which groups Nettium seems to jDass 

 "without any great break. In ordinary talk " Teal " stands for 

 any Duck-like bird of small size, and in that sense the word is 

 often applied to the members of the genus Nettojpus, though system- 

 atists will have it that they are Geese, which the formation of their 

 trachea shews they are not. In the same loose sense the word is 

 often applied to the two most beautiful of the Family Anatidse, 

 belonging to the genus j^x (commonly misspelt Aix) — the Carolina 

 or Wood-Duck of North America, ^. sponsa (not to be confounded 

 with the above-named Anas carolinensis or Nettium carolinense), and 

 the Mandarin-Duck of China, AE. galericulata. Hardly less showy 

 than these are the two species of the group named Eunetta, — the 

 Falcated Duck, E. falcata, and the Baikal Teal, E. formosa, — both 

 from Eastern Asia, but occasionally appearing in Europe. Some 

 British authors have referred to the latter of these well -marked 

 species certain Ducks that from time to time occur, but they are 

 doubtless hybrids, though the secret of their parentage may be 

 unknown ; and in this way a so-called Bimaculated Duck, Anas 

 bimaculata, was for many years erroneously admitted as a good 

 species to the British list, but of late this has been properly dis- 

 carded (cf. Suchetet, Hist, du Bimaculated Duck, Lille : 1894). 



TEASER, a local name for the Arctic Gull (Skua). 



TECTRICES (sing, tectrix), the feathers that cover the base of 

 the quill-feathers of the wing (Remiges, p. 780) and of the tail 

 (Rectrices, p. 769), in each case divisible into Upper and Lower, 

 according to their position on the dorsal or ventral siu'face ; but 

 the tail-coverts need little further notice, while those of the wing 

 deserve much attention. Setting aside the marginal feathers, each 

 group of wing-coverts, whether Upper or Lower, comprises three 

 series — known as the Greater, Middle and Lesser — the two first 



