242 INDIAN DUCKS 



undei'-part of the neck paler, almost white, with the dark centres much 

 reduced and forming only a stippling ; lower parts white, more or less 

 tinged with buff and grey, and also barred with dark grey-brown on the 

 breast, flanks and sides, and less distinctly on the lower tail-coverts. Tail 

 a silvery brown -grey, edged paler; wings silver-grey, the outer secondaries 

 a purer, paler colour, and the inside of the primary-quills darker and 

 browner ; all the feathers, coverts, and quills have the shafts brown, distinctly 

 showing against the grey. 



Colours of soft parts.— "The legs and feet are dusky-olive or dark 

 horny-brown with the claws and webs black, or horny-green with the webs 

 and claws dark-grey ; the bill bluish-grey, black on the culnien and tip or 

 dusky, bounded at the margins of the feathers on the forehead and cheeks 

 with a pale leaden-blue line, continued along the margins of both mandibles 

 to near the tip, and a spot of the same colour just above the nail ; the irides 

 are brown." {Hume.) 



Measurements.—" Length 18'3 to 19 inches, expanse 28'5 to '2^'5, tail 

 from vent 3'6 to 4'0, wing 8'1 to 8'5, wings when closed reach to 07 to 1'5 

 of end of tail, bill at front, including nail, I'll to 1'85, tarsus 1'44 to 1'52. 

 Wei.ght 1 lb. 3 ozs. to 1 lb. 5 ozs." {IIiiiiw.) 



Female. — Only differs from the male in being smaller, having the eye- 

 patch less pronounced, and the general plumage duller and more uniform in 

 colour ; the crest also is less developed. 



Colours of soft parts. — " Legs and feet greenish-plumbeous; irides dark 

 brown ; l)ill dusky-plumbeous, darkest on the culmen." (Butler.) 



Measurements.-" Length 16'9 to 17'5 inches, expanse 27 to 28, tail from 

 vent 2'8 to 3'7, wing 7'9 to 8'1, wing when closed reaches to within 0'5 to 

 I'O of the end of the tail, bill at front 1'6 to 1'75, tarsus 1'4 to 1'5. 

 Weight 1 lb. to 1 lb. 3 ozs." {Hume.) 



Length 15'75 inches, expanse 26'5, wing 7'62, tail from vent 2'75." 



Young — " Similar to the female, but all the markings and tints still 

 duller; the lower parts almost uniform dull pale greyish." (Salvadori.) 



A young female obtained by Major Olivier, and now in the Bombay 

 Natural History Society's collection, has the wing only 7'42 inches, but at 

 the same time has the bill about 1'8. 



Distribution. — The range of the Marbled Teal extends from the 

 countries to the west of the Mediterranean Sea, through those 

 bordering it north and south into Western Asia, India being its 

 eastern limit ; it is also found in the Canaries. 



As regards India Hume wrote in ' Game-birds ' : — 



" Its normal range with us (it is presumably only a cold weather 

 visitant) appears to be the w-hole of Sind (from every Collectorate in 

 which it has been reported, and where it is extremely common) and 



