300 



ANATINiE. 



during the winter months. It is considered excellent eating for the first 

 two months after arrival, but after this the flesh is said to loecomo of a 

 muddy flavour and unpalatable. 



Querquedulaj Steph.; Gray, Gen. B. iii. p. 616. 



Bill of uniform width, as long as the head, and slightly raised at tho 

 base ; nail horny, hooked and narrow ; lamellas not apparent ; wing 

 long, second quill longest; secondaries long and pointed; tail wedge- 

 shaped. 



Querquedula crecca, Lin. ; P. E. 946; Gould. B. Eur. pi. 364; 

 Jerd. B. hid. iii. 806; Miirray, Hdhk., Zool., Sfc, Sind, p. 235; Hume, 

 Game Birds hid. iii. p. 206. [Kardo, Sind; Moorghahi, Hind.) — The 

 Common Teal. 



Forehead, crown, face, cheeks, throat and upper neck in front rich 

 chestnut brown ; chin black ; a narrow dark line round the base of the 

 bill, followed by a white or buSy one on the side, which meets a similar 

 coloured superciliary stripe, and another under the eye; behind the eye, 

 between the hind superciliary and lower eye-streak is a broad glossy 

 green, or dark green patch, which meets on tho back of the neck ; 

 breast rufcscent or white, tinged with reddish and spotted with black ; 

 upper abdomen white; lower abdomen in some minutely barred 

 with brownish ; flanks barred with brown or blackish brown ; 

 upper back and scapulars marked with undulating white and black 

 transverse bars ; lower back dark brown, with faint traces only of 

 paler transverse bars ; tail hair brown or dusky brown, the feathers 

 edged with white ; under tail-coverts black, tho feathers on the sides 

 creamy yellow ; primaries dusky brown, edged on their outer webs and 

 tipped darker ; first six secondaries velvet black on their outer webs ; 

 next four or five forming the speculum glossy green, and followed by the 

 black outer web of the first tertial ; lesser and median coverts dusky 

 or greyish brown ; greater coverts the same and tipped with white or 

 yellowish white, forming a border to the speculum above; bill 

 black, or brownish black; irides brown; legs and , feet greyish or 

 plumbeous. 



Length. — 14"5 to 15'75 inches, wing 7 to 8, tail 2*9 to 3*5 



The female has the head, neck and upper parts dusky brown ; the 

 feathers edged with white or fulvous white on the head and neck and 

 lunated on the back; speculum as in the male, but slightly duller; chin 

 and throat white, with black spots ; breast and flanks white and spotted 

 with dark brown ; abdomen white ; under tail-coverts with brown 

 streaks. 



Length. — 13'5 to 14*7 inches, with a wiiig of 6*5 to 7'5. 



Hah. — Sind, Beloochistan, Persia, Afghanistan, Punjab, N. W. and 

 Central Provinces, Rajputana, Kutch and throughout India. 



Abundant wherever it occurs, frequenting tanks, rivers, ponds and 

 jheels, &c. 



