RING-NECKED TEAL 145 
RING-NECKED TEAL 
Querquedula torquata 
Above dull brown; head above and neck, expanding to a half 
collar, also lesser wing-coverts, lower back, and tail, black; scapulars 
pure chestnut; wings brownish black, with a large white patch on 
coverts of the bronze-green secondaries; beneath, sides of head and 
throat dull white, streaked with brown; breast tinged with rosy red, 
sparingly spotted with black; belly and flanks white, narrowly barred 
with grey; length 14, wing 7.2 inches. Female brown ; superciliaries, 
stripe on each side of head, throat, and sides of neck, white; beneath 
white, banded with brown; wings and tail black ; secondaries bronze- 
green; a white patch as in the male. 
Tuts beautiful Duck, for our first knowledge of 
which we are indebted to Azara, is rather scarce 
in collections. Azara described the two somewhat 
dissimilar sexes under different names, the male 
being his Pato collar negro, and the female his Pato 
ceja blanca. 
In the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres the Ring- 
necked Teal is strictly migratory, and in the month 
of October appears in small flocks in the marshes 
along the river ; but in the interior of the country it 
is seldom met with. They are extremely active birds, 
constantly flying about from place to place both by 
day and night; and in the love-season, when they 
alight in a pool of water, the males immediately 
engage in a spirited combat. While flying they utter 
a peculiar jarring sound, and occasionally a quacking 
note, rapidly repeated and sounding like a strange 
laugh ; but on the water, especially in the evening, 
K II 
