^°'- i^'^6^^"] Murphy, Anatidce of South Georgia. 273 



Considering the similarity of these two ducks, it is rather sur- 

 prising to discover that Dafila spinicauda has only fourteen rec- 

 trices, whereas Ncttion gcorgicum has sixteen. Usually, among 

 the Anatidse as well as other groups, the larger species have the 

 greater number of tail feathers, but here the rule is reversed. 

 Dafila acuta has sixteen rectrices, so that in this character it is no 

 closer to D. spinicauda than the latter is to Nettion georgicum, 

 while in all its other characters it is vastly further removed. In 

 short, after comparing the color pattern, the proportionate dimen- 

 sions of bill, wing, foot and tail, the shape of the central and outer- 

 most rectrices, and the graduation of the primaries, in these three 

 species of ducks, I am forced to the conclusion that Dafila spini- 

 cauda, the closest known relative of Nettion georgicum, should 

 likewise be relegated to the genus Ncttion, or else a new genus, 

 intermediate between Dafila and Nettion, should be erected to 

 contain it. 



Since the establishment of numerous whaling stations at South 

 Georgia, the native teal has fared badly, the whalemen losing no 

 opportunity of bringing the toothsome birds to table. In the 

 neighborhood of Cumberland Bay its numbers have been greatly 

 reduced, although I saw six, all extremely wild, on November 28, 

 1912. Fortunately, the configuration of the land at South Georgia 

 is of a character to prevent the extermination of the species, for 

 the half dozen northern fiords to which the whaling stations are 

 confined are for the most part separated from adjacent fiords by 

 impassable glaciers and ice-capped ranges. Therefore the teals 

 may be wiped out in one valley, and yet be abundant just beyond 

 the next mountain. Judging from several accounts of South 

 Georgia, particularly that of Klutschak (1881), these birds are not 

 found at all on the southerly or Antarctic slope of the island. 



At the isolated Bay of Isles, I found the teals common about 

 the middle of December, which corresponds to our June. They 

 were more numerous on the islets in the bay than on the mainland, 

 and were remarkably unsophisticated, allowing bands of men to 

 walk right up to them as they fished for amphipods from the rocks 

 in the kelp fields at low tide, or dabbled in the fresh water ponds 

 that filled every hollow of the grassy islands. As they fed, they 

 quacked softly from time to time. 



