The Cotton-Teal, 135 



placed the Mandarin Duck, .^x gale^-i- 

 mlata, from Southern China. This beau- 

 tiful Duck is not unlikely to be met with 

 on the borders of the Northern Shan 

 States. It is rather larger than a common 

 Teal, and may be recognised at all ages, 

 and, in the case of both the sexes, by 

 the brown axillaries, the broad and con- 

 spicuous silvery grey margins of all the 

 primaries, and by the bright, but ill-defined, 

 metallic purple speculum, this colour, ex- 

 tending over three or four secondaries. 

 The male, in full plumage, is a gorgeous 

 creature with a long crest, a number of 

 long, narrow, chestnut feathers on the 

 neck, and with a very remarkably-formed 

 inner secondary. This feather is fan- 

 shaped and quite three inches wide at the 

 end. The inner web is chestnut, and the 

 outer purple. The female, which is of 

 plain plumage, may be separated from 

 similarly plumaged young males, and from 

 males, indeed, of all ages and in all phases 

 of plumage, by the oblique white stripe 

 which may always be found on the outer 

 web of the first purple feather of the 

 speculum. This stripe is just below the 

 tips of the wing-coverts, and is always 

 absent in the male. 



