IV ANATIDAE 12 5 



Querquedula circia, the Garganey, which breeds (p. 126) regu- 

 larly in East Anglia, ranges through most Palaearctic countries, and 

 extends in winter to North Africa, a great part of the Indian Eegion, 

 and the Moluccas ; it has a brown crown, back, and chest, the last- 

 named with darker crescents, a chocolate neck with white flecks, a 

 white streak above the eye, bluish-grey wing-coverts, green speculum 

 with white margins, and long black and white scapulars. Q. discors, 

 its Xorth American representative, reaching Ecuador and Peru in 

 the cold season, is redder, with lead-coloured head, a white cres- 

 cent before the eye, and brighter wing-coverts. The brownish 

 females have a dull speculum. Q. versicolor, of America south of 

 Paraguay, and Q. puna, of Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, have plumbeous 

 wing-coverts ; Q. cyano])te.ra, of western and southern South 

 America, has the head and lower surface chestnut. 



The flightless Nesonetta cmchlandica, of the Auckland group, 

 hardly differs in colour from Elasmonetta clilorotis, of the New 

 Zealand area, which is brown waved with black and rufous above, 

 chestnut and reddish with black spots below, the speculum being 

 green and black, the gorget whitish. The female is rufous brown. 



Dafila acuta, the Pintail or Sea-Pheasant of the northern regions 

 generally, reaching North Africa, Ceylon, the Sandwich Islands, 

 Panama, and elsewhere in winter, has a brown head and nape, a 

 white line down each side of the neck, grey upper parts vermiculated 

 with dusky, long black scapulars and rectrices mostly edged with 

 white, a purple-green speculum margined in turn with Ijlack and 

 white, a cinnamon bar on the wing-coverts, and a white breast. The 

 female is greyish with brown speculum and ochraceous barring 

 above, the markings being oblique on the tail. It now breeds in 

 Scotland. D. catoni, of Kerguelen Island and the Crozets, has a 

 grey breast ; D. spinicauda, ranging from Peru and South Brazil 

 to Patagonia and the Falklands, has a rufous head and blackish 

 speculum, the sexes being nearly alike, as in the next genus. 

 Poecilonetta hahamensis of the Bahamas, Antilles, and South 

 America, F. gcdaixigensis of the Galapagos, and P. erytJirorliyncha 

 of South and East Africa with Madagascar, are somewhat similar 

 birds, having reddish plumage spotted with black, whitish cheeks 

 and throat. In the first two the tail is buff, in the third the bill 

 is chiefly pink, the speculum in all being much as in Dafila. 



Nettion crecca, the Teal, extending from Britain over most of 

 Europe and temperate Asia, and nesting even in the Azores and 



