6G INDIAN DUCKS 



bvilliant purple-copper ; sides of lower breast with three bauds of black and 

 two of white ; remainder of lower jiails white ; flanks vermiculated black 

 and brown, but with copper bars opposite the vent and with black and 

 white bars at the end of the flank-feathers. Scapulars grey-brown, the 

 innermost completely glossed with deep-blue and the median with green, 

 the change being graded and not clearly defined ; the outermost are white 

 with broad black edges. The innermost secondary, which is enormously 

 laroadened into a fan-shape, is chestnut on the inner web, tipped paler on 

 the outer half and with blue on the inner, on the outer web of the secondary 

 the tip is chestnut, the remainder deep glossy-blue ; other secondaries 

 brown, with the outer web glossed green and tipped white, except the one 

 next the innermost which is all of this colour ; primaries In'own, glossed 

 greon, and with broad edges of silver-grey on the outer webs. Axillaries 

 brown ; under wing-coverts mixed brown and grey. 



In one specimen in the British Museum the whole chin, and in another 

 the border of the angle of the chin, is white. 



Colours of soft parts.— " Iris dark-brown with a yellowish-white outer 

 ring; bill reddish-brown, with the nail bluish flesh-coloured; tarsus and 

 toes reddish-yellow, membranes blackish." {ScJiiTuk.) 



Measurements.— Wing 8'8 to [Yi inches, tail 4''2 to 4'G, bill, culmen I'l 

 to 1'25, from gape l't5 to 1'45, tarsus I'S to I'i, length about 16 to 18. 



Adult Female. — Head and full crest grey, a narrow line starting above 

 the e>e and passing round the front to the back and bordering the crown 

 white ; sides of the head pale-grey, grading into the white of the chin, throat 

 and upper neck ; the face is sometimes broadly white and sometimes wholly 

 grey, and at other times there is a broad or narrow band of white next the 

 bill ; whole remaining upper parts and wing-coverts brown, more or less 

 tinged with grey or olive-green ; lower neck, breast, sides, and flanks the 

 same colour as the liack, each feather with a pale spot near the tip, these 

 being very large on the flanks ; remainder of lower parts white ; primaries 

 brown, slightly glossed green and Ijroadly tipped white, two of the inner 

 secondaries forming a deep blue-green speculum, submargined black and 

 margined white ; innermost secondaries the same colour as the back. 



As with other Ducks with wdiite under parts, these are often more or 

 less tinged with rusty. 



Colours of soft parts. — As in male. 



Measurements.— Wing about 8 inches, tail about 1, bill, culmen 105 to 

 r20, from gape 1'2 to 1'32, tarsus 1'2 to 1'3. 



The male in post-nuptial plumage resembles the female, but this sex, as 

 Oates points out : — 



may be separated from males .... by the oblique white 

 stripe which may always be found on the outer web of the first 

 purple feather of the speculum. This stripe is just below the tips of 

 the wing-coverts and is always absent in the male." 



The young male in first plumage also resembles the female with the 



