QUERQUEDULA. 



193 



with yellowish or fulvous white ; under tail coverts yellowish white with black 

 spots ; bill black above, brownish on the lower mandible ; irides brown ; legs 

 and feet greenish grey or plumbeous. 



Length.— IS' S to l6-5 inches; wing 7-2 to 8 ; tail 3-2 to 3-5 ; bill 175 to 

 1-85. 



ThQ/emale has the chin and throat white ; head on the crown brown with 

 spots and streaks of a darker shade ; back of neck brown, the feathers edged 

 with white ; eye-streak faint ; speculum dull and indistinct, bordered above 

 and below with white ; breasts and abdomen greyish white, spotted with 

 brown. 



Length. — 14-5 to 15 inches, with a wing of from 7 to 7-5. 



Ilab. — The same as Q. crecca. 



Not found in as great numbers as Q. crecca, affects the same situations, and 

 is considered excellent for the table. It is chiefly a nocturnal feeder, conceal- 

 ing itself in the jheels and dhunds, among the high grass, during the day ; 

 when disturbed it usually returns to the same spot. Hume says "that at 

 nights they come in some parts of the country in such crowds into paddy fields 

 as to destroy acres of crop at one visit ; their food, like Q. crecca, is chiefly 

 vegetable, as tender shoots and leaves of water plants, seeds, bulbs, &c , but 

 on the sea coasts, especially the Sind and Mekran Coast, where they are 

 frequently found in some numbers, Crustacea, slugs, fry of fish and algoe form 

 their diet." 



Querquedula formosa. The ClucUmg Teal. 



233. Querquedula formosa, C7eorgi , Act. Stocki. 1779, t. i. ; 



Schl. J. l.'62-, Murray, Arif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 694, No. 1 397. Querque- 

 dula glocitans {Pall,'), Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 808 ; Hume, Game Birds Ind. iii. 

 p. 225.— The Clucking Teal. 



'^ Male. — Forehead, top of head and occiput rich purple brown, bounded 

 by a narrow white line from the eye; face, cheeks and side of neck fawn 

 25 B 



