WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 1O5 
fringe, and rather smaller size. Eyes, feet and bill as 
in the male, but the last not so black. 
The male in undress bears a general resemblance to 
the female, but, as in the Pintail, differs in details of 
marking. Young birds resemble the female, but are 
more spotted below. Probably young males are like 
the male in undress. 
The male is about fifteen inches long, with a wing 
of about seven and-a-half, bill about one-and-three- 
quarters andshank justover the inch. Femalesarenot 
much smaller. 
This Teal has a wider range than the Blue-winged, not 
only inhabiting Europe, North Africa, and Asia, in 
the temperate portions of which it breeds, laying some 
times more than a dozen ivory-coloured eggs ina nest on 
the ground, straggles at times to the East Coast of North 
America, on which continent it is, however, generally 
replaced by a very similar species, the American green- 
winged Teal, Netttum carolinense. Itis a very common 
winter visitor to India, and probably occurs over the 
whole of our area, as it ranges as far as the Philippines, 
although not yet recorded from South Tenasserim. It 
keeps generally in small flocks, or even may be found in 
pairs or singly, on small pieces of water as well as large, 
unlike the Garganey. It has a smarter flight than that 
bird, and is better eating, both wildandtame. Itstands 
captivity equally well, andiseasily kept. I havenoticed 
individuals of this species kept in the Duck Aviary at 
the Calcutta Zoological Garden, which had acquired the 
habit of perching like Tree-ducks on the narrow ridges 
of gable-topped nesting-boxes—a thing Blue-winged 
Teal confined with them never seemed to do. This Teal 
whistles and quacks, the female being responsible for 
the latter sound and the male for the former; he 
has, as above implied, a bony bulb to the windpipe. 
