WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. IOQ 
extends all over the surface ; possibly this is a matter oi 
age, as old birds get white at the root of the beak. At 
any rate this variation is now quite common, and nearly 
all the living specimens I have seen brought from 
the Andamans show it. Such specimens have bred 
in the London Zoological Gardens, but their young were 
as described below, with no white on the face. 
Young birds have no white round the eye. 
The bill and feet are blue-grey and the eyes reddish- 
brown or red. 
The male is about seventeen inches long, with a wing 
rather over seven-and-half, bill about one-and-three- 
quarters, and shank under one-and-half ; females are 
smaller. 
The Andaman Teal is resident in the Islands from 
which it takes its name, but is not confined to the South 
Andaman alone, as has been supposed, for Captain A. R. 
S. Anderson, I.M.s., late Surgeon-Naturalist to the 
Investigator, states inhis Report for 1897-98, page 7, that 
he found a flock on East Island, the most north-easterly 
of the group. It mayalso straggle occasionally to the 
mainland, as one, the fragments of which were sent to 
the Indian Museum, was recorded some years ago in 
The Astan from Burma, where it had been shot from 
among a flock of Whistlers. 
This Teal frequents, in pairs or flocks, both fresh and 
salt water, apparently preferring the former. Unlike 
most of the Ducks of this section, it perches freely, and 
itis active both onlandand water. I have seen some 
of the specimens in the Calcutta Zoo dive for food like 
Pochards; it is not very timid, and has a peculiarly 
soft noiseless flight as I have been able to observe 
in unpinioned specimens at largein the London Zoo. 
I noticed that the drakes were very pugnacious ; 
they also assisted in the care of the young, unlike 
most of the typical Ducks. The note is a low whistle 
in the male and a quack in the female. The nest has 
