338 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
webs of tertiaries white ; the greater wing coverts are brown, 
with a sub-terminal white band and velvet-black tip; wing 
lining white. The sexes are alike. 
Bill black with a broad orange-yellow tip and a blackish 
nail ; a naked orange or red patch on each side at the base of 
the upper mandible ; iris reddish-brown ; legs and feet orange- 
yellow, claws black. 
Length 24 ; wing 11; tail 4°5; tarsus 1°75 ; bill from gape 
2°5. 
Females are rather smaller. 
Distribution—In Ceylon probably a winter migrant from 
India. It is occasionally found during the north-east monsoon 
on some of the larger tanks in the north and east of the Island. 
A resident species in India, Upper Burma, and the Shan States. 
Habits.—A fresh-water species, which generally goes about 
in pairs or small troops. It is rather heavy on the wing. 
CHAULELASMUS STREPERUS (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 440 ; 
not in Legge). 
The Gadwall. 
Description Male in breeding plumage: head and neck 
grayish-white, speckled with brown most thickly on the 
crown and nape ; lower neck, upper back, scapulars, flanks, 
and upper breast whitish with brown wavy bars, which 
become crescent-shaped on the breast; lower back dark 
brown, turning to black on the rump and upper tail coverts ; 
tail and wing quills grayish-brown ; the outer webs of the 
middle secondaries black, of the inner secondaries white ; the 
smaller wing coverts brown, the median chestnut, the greater 
velvet-black ; lower breast and abdomen dirty white, with 
indistinct brown bars towards the vent ; the under tail coverts 
black. In the off season drakes assume female plumage. 
Female : head and neck streaky brown and white, darkest 
above ; the upper parts dark brown mottled with buff on the 
upper back and scapulars; breast and flanks rufous-buft 
spotted with brown ; abdomen dirty white ; wings as in the 
male, save that the chestnut of the median wing coverts is 
wanting or greatly diminished. 
