CHAULELASMUS STHEPEKUS 1/9 



(29) CHAULELASMUS STREPERUS. 

 THE GADWALL. 



Anas strepera, Linn. S. X. .\. ed. i, p. 125 (1758) (Sweden) ; Hartert, 

 \'o<j. Pal. p. 1320 (1920). 



Chaulelasmus streperus, Jerdon, B. of I. iii, p. 802; Hinnc, S. F. vii, 

 p. 115 : /(/. Cut. No. 961 ; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 362 ; Hume ct; 2Iarsh. 

 Game-B. iii. p. 181 ; Oates, Birds of B. B. ii, p. 283 ; Barnes, B. of 

 Bom. p. 405 ; Salvadori, Cat. B. 31. xxvii, p. 221 ; Blanford, Avifauna 

 B. I. iv, p. 140 ; Stuart Baker, J. B. N. H. S. xii, p. 24 (1898) ; Oates, 

 Game-B. ii, p. 234; Dcicar, J. B. N. H. S. xvi, p. 498; Cumminfj, 

 ibid. p. 697 ; Ward, ibid, xvii, p. 943 (1907) ; Stuart Baker, Indian 

 Ducks, p. 148 (1908) ; Whitehead, J. B. X. II. S. xx, p. 978 (1911) ; 

 Wait, Spolia Zeylonica, x, part 39, 1917. 



Description. Adult Male.— Head and neck whitish, rufous- white, or dull 

 rufous, densely speckled with brown, except on the chin, which is almost pure 

 wliite in highly-plumaged birds ; the anterior portions of the head nearly 

 always lighter than the posterior in ground-colour, which shades off into brown 

 of the nape, on which the darker spots hardly show : lower neck, back, and 

 scapulars deep blackish-brown to dark rufous-brown, every feather beautifully 

 waved with white crescentic lines ; lower back darker, with fewer and finer 

 vermiculations, sometimes almost unmarked, changing into the black of the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts ; central rectrices grey, outer ones rufous-grey 

 with almost white edges, generally increasing in width to the outermost ones ; 

 breast, sides of the body, and flanks like the back, but the breast more boldly 

 marked with the dark and light, and the vent and flanks more finely so; rest 

 of the abdomen, &c., white, under tail-coverts, typically the same velvety- 

 black as the upper, but often splashed with patches of Ijlack and white 

 vermiculations ; the smallest wing-coverts like the scapulars ; the median 

 and primary greater coverts chestnnt, with the bases brown and white, some- 

 times showing ; greater coverts next the secondaries black ; secondaries pure 

 grey, silvery towards the tips ; a speculum formed by the outer secondaries, 

 four or five glossy velvety black and three with broad pure white outer webs, 

 those next the black often with a narrow black edge ; primaries brown-grey, 

 darkest at the tips ; shoulder of wing and under wing-coverts white. 



The colours, as with nearly all ducks, vary considerably ; the abdomen 

 is sometimes as pure white as freshly-fallen snow, often tinged with rufous, 

 and sometimes wholly of that colour. In the same way the colours of the 

 head vary much also. I have a fine drake before me now, in which the rufous 

 head contrasts strongly with the blacker breast ; and again another drake in 

 which the two colours blend with one another. 



