186 ANATID/E. 



primaries dark brown; secondaries nearly black ; the speculum a tri-coloured 

 bar of purple red, black and white, except the four first feathers, which are 

 grey at base and black at the tip ; tertials brownish grey ; greater wing coverts 

 glossy black ; lesser wing coverts grey, marbled with yellowish or fulvous 

 white ; median coverts rich chestnut brown, varied in some with orange brown, 

 the tips of the feathers nearest to the speculum broadly bordered with black ; 

 bill brownish black or dusky leaden, tinged with reddish beneath ; irides dark 

 brown ; legs pale orange. 



Length. — 19*5 to 22-5 ; wing 10.75 to ii'S ; tail 3-9 to 4-2. 



The female is smaller, has a light superciliary streak ; the head on the 

 crown is black mixed with greyish white ; sides of the face fulvous white with 

 brownish streaks ; neck in front spotted with dark brown, and marked on the 

 breast with crescentic bands of dark and pale brown ; chin and throat white ; 

 abdomen white; back deep dusky brown, the feathers edged with buff; lesser 

 wing coverts greyish brown, edged paler; speculum dull white; tail dark 

 brown, marbled with pale buff, brown and white. 



Hab. — Central and South Europe, and nearly throughout India ; found in 

 Sind, Beloochistan, Afghanistan, and Persia; also in the Punjab, N.-W. and 

 Central Provinces, Oudh, Bengal, Central India, Kutch, Guzerat, the Concans 

 and Deccan; recorded also from Nepaul, Gilgit, and E. Turkestan; it is also 

 met with on the Continent of Europe, in Spain and Italy, also in Iceland and 

 Siberia, as well as in the northern parts of Africa and India generally. In 

 Sind it is numerous on the lakes, dhunds, &c., during winter, and especially 

 on the Munchur, arriving about the middle of November. 



Gadwall are considered excellent for the table, especially during the first 

 two months of their arrival, when they usually feed on rice and young shoots 

 of the sprouting wheat crops. Later on they affect the jheels and feed on 

 crustaceans and fry of fish, and though then rather fishy in taste, the flesh is 

 not despised when better game is not to be had. The localities preferred by 

 the Gadwall after dusk are generally lakes, jheels and ponds covered with 

 long herbage, but during the day it frequents open water, as the broads of the 

 Indus. 



228. Chaulelasmus angustirostris {Menetn'es), Bp. F. itai. 



t. 47, i., 2 ; Goulds B. Eur. pi. 373 ; Str. F. i. p. 262 ; iii. p. 273 ; vii. pp. 493, 

 523; Murray, Hdbk., Zool, Sfc, Sind, p. 235; Hume, Game B. Ind. p. 

 2'i)^ \ Murray, Vert. Zool. Sind, p. 294; id., Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 687, 

 No. 1392. — The Marbled Teal. 



"The male has the forehead, crown, occiput, and nape brownish white, with 

 numerous narrow, close-set, wavy, irregular, dark brown bars, which become 

 more speckly on the occiput, where also the ground colour is a more rufescent 

 brown ; feathers immediately round the eye very dark brown ; a broad irre- 

 gular stripe over the eye, and a large patch on the side of the head behind the 



