Q2 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
has a bony bulb in the windpipe, and his voice isa 
faint soft note, while the female utters a harsh unplea- 
sant quack ; but they are silent birds as a rule, the 
females especially. They are always most excellent 
eating, and as they stand the hot weather well, might 
easily be kept through the summer for table purposes 
inany suitable tank or building. This species is partic- 
ularly liable to show the rusty wash on the lower parts 
found in many Ducks; itis undoubtedly a stain, as a 
drake Pintail I had unpinioned showed it suddenly 
one day after a night’s absence from the tank where he 
was living. 
I once saw a semi-albino Pinta1l drake in the Calcutta 
bazaar, of a pallid whitish hue with flesh-coloured bill 
and feet ; and Mr. M. Mackenzie, of Chuprah, wrote me 
once that he had got a snow-white female of this bird. 
The Mallard, Spot-bill, and Yellow-nib are large 
Ducks of a somewhat heavy build, with big broad 
bills ; they are about the same size, but are easily dis- 
tinguished by the wing-marking ; the wing-bar is steel- 
blue in the Mallard and Yellow-nib, in the Spotted-bill 
metallic green with a long white splash above and 
behind it. 
The Mallard. 
Anas boscas, BLANFORD, Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, 
VolwiV. (1435. 
VERNACULAR NaMEs :—WNul-sir, Nivoq1, H. ; Lalg 
(male), Lilgaht (female), Nepal. 
The Mallard differs from all our Ducks in that the 
male’s four middle tail-feathers are curled up; heis very 
different from the female in general plumage also. In 
general colour the male is grey, the effect being produced 
by a fine pencilling of dark brown on white, more or less 
marked : the head is bright metallic green, this colour 
