250 INDIAN DUCKS 



coverts blackish-brown, more or less glossed green; tail silvery grey-brown ; 

 breast blackish-brovpn, paling on the lo"\\'er breast and abdomen ; under tail- 

 coverts dark-brown ; flanks, axillaries, and inider wing-coverts white ; 

 coverts bordering the wing and running into the scapulars white : other 

 coverts grey isli -brown ; secondaries white, sometimes tinged grey or creamy, 

 with a subterminal band of brown from 2'5 to 4 inches wide ; inner 

 secondaries like tlie coverts ; outermost primary brown on the outer web 

 and inside of the inner web and tip, the remainder white, this white 

 gradually increasing in extent on each primary until the innermost primaries 

 are all white with a broad lirown tip. 



Colours of soft parts. — Bill vermilion-red ; the nail whitish, tinged pink 

 or sometimes yellowish, the base next the feathers of the forehead and the 

 gape more or less dusky-brown except in the oldest birds ; legs and feet 

 orange, orange-red, or dull fleshy-red ; irides deep or light reddish-brown to 

 bright light red. 



' In the adult male the bill is a brilliant crimson, sometimes inclining to 

 vermilion; the nail brown or white, tinged with brownish-horn, or pink 

 horny-Jirown or yellow at tip. There is often a dusky shade round the 

 nostrils ; the gape is often blackish, as is likewise the base of tlie lower 

 mandible and the basal portion of the membrane between its rami ; but 

 these are all traces, I think, of immaturity. 



"Tlie legs and feet are dingy salmon-colour or reddish-orange, dusky on 

 the joints and blackisli on the webs ; but in slightly younger but full- 

 plumaged birds the legs and feet will be olivaceous-orange, or, lastly, dusky 

 with a reddish tinge. 



" The irides vary from brown to red (this latter being the colour in the 

 old adult) and are at ditt'erent ages brown, brownish-yellow, reddish-brown, 

 orange, orange-red, and bright-red." 



Measurements.— " Length 20'5 to 221 inches, expanse 3-l'0 to 38'2, 

 wing lO'O to 10'75, tail from vent 3'0 to 4'2, tarsus 1'5 to 17, bill from 

 gape 2'3 to 242. Weight 1 lb. 12 ozs. to 2 lbs. 14 ozs." (Tlnmr.) 



Female. — Above pale greyish-brown distinctly tinged with ochre ; the 

 crown rather darker ; scapulars paler ; the feathers of the upper surface 

 with pale margins, practically absent in the older birds ; the wings paler 

 and duller but otherwise like those of the male, the white being replaced 

 by pale grey or dusky-white ; whole lower plumage, under wing-coverts, 

 and axillaries pale greyish-white, yellowish-white, or greyish-ocbre, darker 

 on the flanks. 



Colours of soft parts.— Bill dusky-black, becoming red towards the tip 

 and with the nail still paler, the lower mandible only dark at the base and 

 up the fleshy part in the centre ; irides brown or reddish-brown ; the webs 

 and joints darker, often dusky-black. 



" In the female the bill is black, reddish or orange towards the tip and 

 more or less along the sides of the lower and edges of the upper mandible." 

 {Hume.) 



