176 ANATID^. 



Top of the head and back of neck black, spotted with white, more so on the 

 back of the neck ; cheeks, sides and front of the neck white, with a few black 

 spots ; breast and entire under parts white ; chin and throat white ; back, 

 scapulars, tertiaries and wing coverts glossy black, glossed with purple ; upper 

 tail coverts^ glossed greenish ; primaries and secondaries black ; the lesser 

 wing coverts glossed with purplish green ; tail black ; bill of male with a fleshy 

 protuberance ; irides dark brown ; bill black. 



Length. — 28 to 30 inches ; wing 13 to 15 ; tail 6. Female is smaller, and 

 less brightly coloured. 



Hah. — Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Oudh, Bengal, Rajputana, Kutch, 

 Kattiawar, Guzerat, Concan and Deccan, South India and Ceylon ; also British 

 Burmah. 



A straggler in Sind. Breeds in the N,-W. Provinces during July and 

 August. In Ceylon it is said to breed from January to March, usually on trees 

 in the proximity of large sheets of water. 



217. Nettapus coromandelianus {Gmel), Jerd., B. Ind, iii. 



p. 786; Blyth, B. Burm. p. 165; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 50 1 ; 

 Legge, B. Ceylon, p. 1066; Htune and Marsh., Game Birds iii. p. lOl, pi. ; 

 Oates, B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 272 ; id., Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 677, No. 13S0. 

 Anser coromandeliana, GmeU, Syst. Nat. i. p. 522. Nettapus coroman- 

 delicus (Z.), Htime, Nests and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 638. Nettapus coromandus 

 (Z.), Hume, Str. F. iii. p. 192.— The Cotton Teal. 



Forehead, crown and nape hair brown, remainder of the head, whole neck 

 and lower plumage white ; collar round the neck black in front, glossy green 

 on hind neck ; a second demi-coUar from the breast upwards below this ; 

 under tail coverts dark brown mottled with white ; upper plumage glossy 

 o-reen ; the secondaries are broadly tipped with white and the primaries also, 

 their basal halves are dark brown ; upper tail coverts white, freckled with 

 brown ; tail brown ; under wing coverts greenish black. The female has a 

 line from the lores through the eye dusky black, surmounted by a dirty white 

 supercilium ; rest of the head, whole neck and the upper breast dull white 

 mottled wiih brown ; lower plumage dull white ; upper tail coverts white, 

 freckled with brown. In winter the male is like the female, but has always 

 the white patch on the primaries. Bill black ; irides red. 



Length. — 13 inches ; tail 3 ; wing 6'5 ; tarsus i ; bill from gape I'l. 



}{ab. — Nearly throughout India, also Ceylon and Burmah, except the drier 

 reo^ions as Sind, Kutch, Rajputana. Breeds in July and August, in the holes 

 of trees, laying from 8 to lO eggs, of a delicate ivory white colour. They 

 generally affect swamps, marshes, and inundated ponds and ditches. 



