KKTTION C'KECCA CHECCA "iOy 



I'oniier showiug often in the centre of the abdomen and the latter on the 

 under tail-coverts. 



The Nestling " is yellowish-wJiite ou the under parts, bufl' on the 

 forehead and throat ; a dark-bro\vn streak from the forehead to the 

 crown, which, with tiie upper parts, is brown ; a dark loreal streak, and 

 two other streaks from behind tlie eve to the nape, on each side." 

 (Yairell.) 



Tiie drakes, wlien tliey arrive in India, are often in a beautiful 

 transition-stage, and few will be found in perfect male plumage before 

 ■January. I liave a most handsome young male in my collection which is 

 a very good example of the changing plumage ; above, it is like the female, 

 but without the liroad edgings to the feathers, and on the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts are a few feathers showing the beautiful black and white 

 vermiculations. The head is dark-brown witli the merest trace only of the 

 black e\e-streak ; tiie under plumage is pure white, but all along the tianks, 

 vent, and under tail-coverts, and here and there on the abdomen, are still 

 left feathers of tlie old plumage, which are a bright rufous-buff. Tlie new 

 featliers of the tianks are like those of the adult male, and the breast is 

 IjeautifuUy spotted with distinct oval drops ; the upper breast and neck are 

 a dull rufous. 



From the above description, it may be seen that it does not follow that 

 because one year a bird has rufous or rufescent plumage, he will have the 

 same again after the next moult. In the bird just described the new 

 plumage is a very pure white, but tlie old patches are exceptionally bright 

 rufous. From this we might infer that tlie habitat and its water have 

 nuicli to do with tlie colouration of the lower parts, yet a female in new 

 plumage shot with this young male is very rufous indeed. 



Distribution. — The Common Teal extends through the Palsearctic 

 region in the summer, breeding as far south as the 40th degree 

 north latitude, and migrating south during the cold weather into 

 northern Africa as far as Abyssinia on the east, and ^^'adan on the 

 west, practically the whole of southern Asia, and the Atlantic coast 

 of North America. It occurs, though rarely, in Greenland. 



In British India it is found everywhere with very few exceptions. 

 From the extreme north down to Cape Comorin it is very abundant, 

 though perhaps more so to the north than to the south, but even 

 there it is spoken of as appearing in flocks of hundreds. 



Hume gives the exceptions to its habitat as follows : — 



" The Laccadives, the Andamans, and Nicobars. Tenasserim, 

 Southern, Central, and North-East of the Salwein, and possibly 

 Malabar." 



