WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 103 
in life. But this was an exception, for the feet and bill 
of these albinistic birds, as far as I have been able to 
observe, are flesh-coloured, and hence they ought never 
to be mistaken for the Marbled Teal, which has dark bill 
and feet, andis besides a much larger bird and very 
differently marked, the mottlings being very coarse. 
Our Blue-winged Teal has a wide range in the old world, 
breeding through a great part of the temperate zone in 
Europe and Asia, and wintering in North Africa, North 
China and Southern Asia as far as the Philippines and 
Celebes. It is one of our commonest winter visitants, 
occurring throughout India, Ceylon and Burma. It 
arrives early and leaves late, and is almost always 
in flocks, often large. It occasionally breeds with us, 
as young have been obtained in Oudh and at Moulmein. 
The eggs are creamy-white, six to thirteen in number, 
and deposited ina grass nest lined with down on the 
ground. The Garganey is a good bird for the table, 
if not quite equal to the Common Teal, and like that 
bird thrives excellently in confinement if suitable 
accommodation be provided, standing the hot weather 
well. The male has a peculiar inward guttural croak ; 
he is provided with a bony bulb in the windpipe, 
larger than that present in the Common Teal, and 
differently formed. 
The Common Teal and its allies, the Clucking and 
the Andaman Teal, are placed together in one genus 
(Netttum), though they differ considerably inter se, 
especially the last named. They are all small delicately 
formed Ducks, with the bill not showing the fringing 
below the edges of the upper chap, and they all have 
a wing-bar of black and metallic-green or bronze. 
Independentiy of the difference of size and proportions 
they may be easily distinguished by this marking, as 
follows :— 
The Common Teal has the wing-bar half black and 
half green longitudinally, with a broad white or bufi- 
and-white border in front. 
