CEYLON WATER BIRDS. 341 
web black with a whitish bar inside ; the tertiaries are gray 
with a velvet-black stripe ; breast and abdomen white, speckled 
towards the vent with gray; lower tail coverts black, the 
outside feathers with a whitish border. From June to October 
the male resembles the female, but retains the wing bar. 
Female: dusky gray above, with irregular buff or white 
bars on the back and scapulars ; the greater wing coverts and 
the secondaries are tipped with white, thus forming two white 
bands across the wing ; there is no bright wing bar ; primaries 
brown-gray. The chin and throat are whitish ; the sides of 
the head and fore-neck white speckled with dark brown 
markings, which are more distinct on the lower neck. The 
lower parts, flanks, and under tail coverts are whitish tinged 
and streaked with dusky brown. 
Young males resemble females, but show traces of the wing 
bar. 
Bill black, dull lead-blue on the sides; iris dark brown ; 
legs and feet gray-black. 
Length 22 to 29; wing 11; tail 5 to 8°5; tarsus 1°6; bill 
from gape 2°25. Females are smaller ; wing 10. 
Distribution —Appears to visit the lagoons in the north of 
the Island fairly regularly from November to about March. 
A winter visitor to scattered districts throughout India and 
Burma. It occurs almost throughout the Northern Hemi- 
sphere, breeding near the Arctic Circle. 
Habits —This is mostly a fresh-water bird, but with us it 
seems to be confined to coastal lagoons, which, however, at 
the season of its visit are flooded with rain water and become 
brackish, in some places nearly fresh. 
QUERQUEDULA cIRCIA (Blanford, Vol. [V., p. 449). 
ANAS cirRciA (Legge, p. 1080). 
The Garganey Teal. 
Description.—Male in breeding plumage: the top of the 
head, from crown to nape, brownish-black ; a white stripe 
from the front of the eye to the side of the nape; the chin 
