BIRDS OF EGrPT. 283 



302. Anas boschas, Linn. Common Wild Duck. 



Tlie Wild Duck is distributed throughout Egypt and 

 Nubia, and is everywhere plentiful. 



Male. — Head and neck rich metallic green, the lower part 

 surrounded by a white ring; lower neck and fore part of 

 the breast chocolate-brown ; upper part of the back cho- 

 colate-brown, with pale edges to the feathers ; scapulars 

 grey and brown, pencilled with dusky ; lower part of the 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts black, with green re- 

 flections ; tail black, edged with white, except the foiu- 

 centre feathers, which are curled up ; primaries dusky brown ; 

 secondaries deep metallic blue, shading into black and 

 tipped with white; greater wing-coverts barred with white 

 and tipped with black, remaining wing-coverts brown ; ab- 

 domen greyish white, shaded with yellow and pencilled with 

 dusky ; legs orange ; beak yellow ; irides dark brown. 



Entire length 24 inches ; culmen 2'3 ; wing, carpus to tip, 

 10-8 ; tarsus 2. 



Fig. Gould, B. of Eur. pi. 361. 



303. Anas strepera, Linn. Gadwall. 



The Gadwall ranges throughout Egypt and Nubia, and is 

 moderately abundant, frequenting the large sheets of water 

 in preference to the small pools and canals. I have shot it 

 in Lower Egypt, the Fayoom, and up the Nile at El Kab. 



Feathers on the top of the head and nape dusky, barred 

 and edged with brown ; remainder of the head and neck dirty 

 white, thickly freckled with brown ; base of the throat and 

 crop dusky black, with white semicircular bars and edges to 



