EUROPEAN TEAL. 135 



NETTION CRECCA. 



Geographical Distribution. Northern portions of the Old 

 World. Occasional in North America. 



Adult Male. Very similar in plumage to the American Green- 

 winged Teal, but with the following differences: Green band be- 

 hind the eye, bordered anteriorly with yellowish white, more 

 conspicuous than in the American species; there is no white bar 

 in front of the bend of the wing. The black and white undula- 

 tions on back and sides are much coarser; the outer scapulars 

 have the inner webs entirely, and the outer partly, white, or yel- 

 lowish-white, while the exposed portions of outer webs are black, 

 forming two broad stripes down the wing, the inner white, outer 

 black. The remainder of the plumage is practically indistin- 

 guishable from N. carolinensis, the American species. Bill, 

 black. Legs and feet, brownish gray. Total length, 14 inches; 

 wing, 7; culmen, \\\ tarsus, i. 



Adult Female. Very like the same sex in the American 

 Green-winged Teal, so much so that anyone might be excused 

 for confounding them. The back is fuscous, but the bars and 

 margins of the feathers are throughout of a deeper hue, more 

 generally ochraceous than buff. The sides of the head, neck, 

 and throat are deep buff, much darker than the same parts in its 

 American ally. These seem to be the only tangible differences 

 in the specimens before me, and they may be to a great extent 

 individual, and the only way that a specimen of a female can be 

 determined with any certainty is to have the locality in which it 

 was procured established without doubt. Even then, in the case 

 of a female of the European Green-winged Teal, killed in Amer- 

 ica, it would be a difficult task to decide as to which species it 

 belonged. Total length, 13 inches; wing, 6^; culmen, ij^; tar- 

 sus, i. 



Downy Young. Line on forehead, top of head, back of neck, 

 stripe through eye to occiput, and one from corners of mouth to 

 and including ear coverts, and entire upper parts, dark brown. 

 Sides of head, buff; throat and under parts, and spots on 

 shoulder, and on each side of back and rump, yellowish white. 

 Bill, black; tip, orange. 



