310 INDIAN DUCKS 



with white : median white, the remainder black ; scapulars white, the outer 

 webs edged Ijlack, giving tiiem a barred- appearance, and with a black bur 

 across the base troni the centre of the upper back, past the slioulder ol' the 

 wing, and on the sides of the body : these and the flanks are white, very 

 finely barred with black. 



Colours of soft parts. — "Bill bluisli lead-colour; nail generally brown, 

 often paler ; irides brown ; legs and feet lavender-grey." {Blanfurd.) 



" Bill of a bluish lead-colour; irides bluish-white; legs and feet bluish- 

 lead, webs darker." (Salvador!.) 



" In fourteen specimens I have recorded the irides as brown or deep 

 brown in one as red-brown, and I have observed no other colour. Macgil- 

 livray records it from fresh specimens, examined by himself, as red and 

 bright red ; Naumann says that in the young it is dark brown, then nut- 

 brown, in males of the second ^ear brownish-grey, later light ash-grey, and 

 in very old males a pure pearl-colour or bluish-white. 



"The bill is, as a rule, pale plumbeous, sometimes a clearer and bluer 

 tint, sometimes duskier, and in some specimens, young of both sexes and 

 old females, it has been almost black. 



"The nail is generally brownish, horny-whitish at tiie extreme tip, but 

 in some it has been bluish-white througiiout, and in some almost black 

 throughout. 



" The legs and feet vary from pale blue-grey to plumbeous and dark 

 lavender; the webs, except just where they join the toes, being dusky to 

 black, and the claws brownish-black. Often there is an olive tinge on the 

 tarsi, and occasionally — in the young only, I think — both these and the 

 toes exhibit small dusky spots and patches." 



Measurements.--" Length 17 to IS'l inches, wing I'bb to 8'3'2, tail from 

 vent -S'SS to ■II, tarsus 1'2 to 1'31, bill from gape l'G3 to r72. Weight 

 1 lb. 4 oz. to 1 lb. 12 oz." (Hume.) 



Female. — The black loreal patch in the male is replaced by rich dark- 

 brown, almost black in very old females; whole upper head, crest, and 

 nape ferruginous-brown, richest and reddest at the end of the crest. 

 Upper back grey-brown, changing to blackish-brown on the lower back 

 and again to dark grey-brown on the rump, upper tail-coverts and tail ; 

 wings like those of the male, but the inner secondaries darker and browner, 

 and the lesser coverts brown instead of black; breast mottled-grey; rest 

 of lower plumage wliite, the flanks more or less mottled with dark-brown, 

 axillaries white. 



Colour of the soft parts would seem to he the same in the females 

 as in the males, but the irides are always brown. 



Measurements.— " Length 15'5 to 1675 inches, wing 7'01 to 7'3, tail 

 from vent 3'3 to 3'9, tarsus I'll to 1'19, bill from gape 1'48 to I'G. 

 Weight 1 lb. to 1 lb. 6j ozs." (Hume.) 



Males in post-nuptial plumage assume the plumage of the female, but 

 appear to have the wliite wing-bai' larger and the lesser wing-coverts 



