178 INDIAN UUCKS 



Its diet seems to be principally, if not wholly, vegetarian, but 

 very little has been written on this point. 



The female Bronze-Capped Teal is so like the female gadwall 

 that both Hume and Salvadori give the points by which they may 

 be determined. They are these : — 



The principal difference lies in the wing-speculum : in the 

 gadwall " the entire visible portions of the later secondaries are pure 

 white, the terminal portions of their larger coverts white. 



" In female fulcata the visible portions of the later secondaries 

 are black, with more or less metallic-green reflections, narrowly 

 tipped with white, and the terminal portions of their greater coverts 

 are black." 



The maxilla also of the gadwall is only dark along the culmen, 

 whereas the whole of the upper mandible of the Bronze-Cap is dark. 

 Ho also there is always more or less of an orange or yellowish tinge 

 on the feet and legs of the gadwall, whereas there is no trace of this 

 colour on those of the other duck, in which they are more or less of 

 a light slate-colour. These last differences, however, will not be very 

 noticeable in the dried skin, and not at all in very old specimens, and 

 can onh' be of any use in discriminating birds in the flesh. It should 

 always be Ijorne in mind by anyone wishing to ascertain the identity 

 of a bird that it is infinitely easier to do so whilst it is in the flesh 

 than afterwards, when it has become a dried specimen ; the colours 

 of the soft parts are then undiscernible, small marks of feathers, 

 such as rings round the eyes, indistinct supercilia, and similar 

 markings, are seldom as definite as in the fresh bird, and often, if 

 roughly handled in the skinning, become totally lost. Thus the 

 bird should be identified in the flesh as soon as possible; and if it 

 cannot be, the colours of the soft [>arts must be carefully noted, and 

 a rough note made also of an)'thiug remarkable in the colouration. 



