RING-NECKED TEAL 145 



RING-NECKED TEAL 



Querquedula torquata 



Above dull brown ; head above and neck, expanding to a half 

 collar, also lesser wing-coverts, lower back, and tail, black ; scapulars 

 pure chestnut; wings brownish black, with a large white patch on 

 coverts of the bronze-green secondaries ; beneath, sides of head and 

 throat dull white, streaked with brown ; breast tinged with rosy red, 

 sparingly spotted with black ; belly and flanks white, narrowly barred 

 with grey ; length 14, wing 7.2 inches. Female brown ; superciliaries, 

 stripe on each side of head, throat, and sides of neck, white ; beneath 

 white, banded with brown ; wings and tail black ; secondaries bronze- 

 green ; a white patch as in the male. 



THIS beautiful Duck, for our first knowledge of 

 which we are indebted to Azara, is rather scarce 

 in collections. Azara described the two somewhat 

 dissimilar sexes under different names, the male 

 being his Pato collar negro, and the female his Pato 

 ceja blanca. 



In the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres the Ring- 

 necked Teal is strictly migratory, and in the month 

 of October appears in small flocks in the marshes 

 along the river ; but in the interior of the country it 

 is seldom met with. They are extremely active birds, 

 constantly flying about from place to place both by 

 day and night ; and in the love-season, when they 

 alight in a pool of water, the males immediately 

 engage in a spirited combat. While flying they utter 

 a peculiar jarring sound, and occasionally a quacking 

 note, rapidly repeated and sounding like a strange 

 laugh ; but on the water, especially in the evening, 



K II 



