456 Mr. F. E. Blaauw on Plumage-development. [Ibis, 



which is a genus allied to the Pintails and differing so 

 slightly from them that in my opinion tliey might very well 

 be inchided in the geuus Dufila. The Red-billed Teal shows 

 no affinities with the Pintails. It has no lengthened tail- 

 feathers and nothing in its habits reminds one of them. 

 The affinities are certainly with the Teals, Nettion or 

 Querquedula. 



The male of this species is a remarkably silent bird. The 

 only tone it emits is a subdued drawling note with very little 

 sound in it, and which is accompanied by an elevation of the 

 head. 



The eggs, usually seven in number, are generally deposited 

 in a nest at some distance from the water under a bush or 

 a sedge. 



The South African Yellow-billed Duck {Anas undulata) is 

 also a rare Duck in European collections of live waterfowl. 

 I brought my pair from Port Elizabeth in the spring of 1914, 

 and the birds bred the following year. 



The chick in down may be described as follows : — 



The whole of the under side including throat and cheeks 

 golden-yellow. A dark band begins at the base of the bill, 

 widens over the occiput, and gets narrower over the back of 

 the neck to join the brownish black of the upper side. The 

 brown of the upper side runs into the yellow of the breast for 

 about a centimetre on each side. A thin black line runs 

 through the eyes, meeting the brown of the back of the 

 neck. There is a blackish patch over each ear. There is a 

 yellow spot on each side of the back at the base of the 

 wings and a yellow streak over each wing, also a yellow spot 

 on each side of the back at the base of the tail and one 

 above each thigh. The legs, feet, and bill are black. 



In first plumage the South African Yellow-bill resembles 

 the adults, but the markings of the feathers are less well 

 defined. The bill has its full yellow and black colour as 

 in the adult birds. 



