286 BIRDS OF EGYPT. 



the scapulars elongated, and coloured blue, white, and black ; 

 primaries brown, the secondaries having their outer webs 

 metallic green ; greater wing-coverts brown, edged with 

 white, the other wing-coverts blue-grey ; remainder of the 

 chest and abdomen chocolate-brown ; legs orange ; beak 

 black ; irides brown. 



Entire length 20'5 inches; culmen 2'6 ; wing, carpus to 

 tip, 9 ; tarsus I'S. 



Fig. Gould, B. of Eur. pi. 360. 



306. QuERQTJEDULA CRECCA (Linn.). Common Teal. 



/v^y' This is the most abundant species of water-fowl throughout 



o ^ ^ y ^ Egypt and Nubia, being met with on nearly every small pool 



/ / or canal, preferring these haunts to the larger sheets of water. 



_ ' r^ 6^ Male. — Head and neck rich ferruginous brown, with a 



large patch of bright metallic green encircling the eye and 

 extending over the ear-coverts down the sides of the neck, 

 ending in a steel-blue patch at the back of the neck; a 

 white streak passes from the beak between the green and 

 brown of the cheeks ; remainder of the neck, upper part 

 of the back, a portion of the scapulars, and sides of the body 

 dusky, the feathers being composed of alternate narrow 

 streaks of white and black ; remainder of the scapulars 

 white, with a border of velvety black on their outer webs ; 

 remainder of the back and tail dusky brown ; quills dusky, 

 exterior web of the outer secondaries black, of the inner 

 ones metallic green ; wing-coverts brownish ash-colour, the 

 larger ones tipped with creamy white ; underparts white, 

 spotted with black on the crop, and shaded with dusky on 



