74 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
ing to my experience. The male has a small bony bulb 
in the windpipe. 
The Cotton-teal. 
Nettopus coromandelianus, BLANFORD, Faun. Brit. 
Ind., Birds; Vol V1, p. 433. 
VERNACULAR NAMES :—Girria, Girri, Girga, Gur- 
gurra, Hind.; Ghangariel, Gangant, Beng. ; 
Bullia-hans, Dacca, Faridpur, Sylhet ; Dand- 
ana, Uriya; Lerriget-perriget, Meromderebet, 
Kol ; Ade, Adla, Ratnagiri ; Kalagat, Burmese, 
The Cotton-teal, in addition to its very small size, is 
noticeable for its rather ‘‘dumpy ”’ build, short wings, 
long rounded tail, short legs set far back, and large feet, 
with strong sharp claws. The bill is almost exactly like 
that of a Goose in miniature, but has the nostrils near 
the root ; it tapers to the tip, and has a large nail form- 
ing the tip, but at the edges it has the ordinary ridging 
found in Ducks, not the teeth of a Goose’s bill. 
The plumage, like the general build, is not at all like 
that of a Goose, and it differs much in the two sexes, 
though there is some general correspondence. The male 
is largely white, with the crown metallic dark-brown, a 
broad black collar below the neck, the upper plumage 
metallic green and purple ; there is a white patch on the 
primary quills; the flanks are pencilled with black, and 
the under tail-coverts black. The billis black, the eye 
red, and the feet black, yellow down the sides of the 
shanks and toes. 
The female is brown where the male shows his metallic 
hues: there is a brown line from the bill through the 
eye ; the head and neck are speckled with brown and 
the breast pencilled with that colour; the flanks are 
brownish, and the under tail-coverts white, and there is 
no white patch on the pinion quills. The bill is yellowish 
