PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 205 



5. Food. The tender shoots and leaves of aquatic plants, insects and their 

 larvae, small Crustacea. The young feed largely on aquatic insects, and are aided 

 in their search and guarded by both parents, [w. p. p.] 



GARGANEY [Querquedula querquedula (Linnseus) ; Querquedula circia 

 (Linnaeus). Crick, summer-teal ; summer-crick, cricket-teal (Norfolk). 

 French, sarcelle d'ete ; German, Kndk-Enle ; Italian, marzaiola]. 



I. Description. The garganey may at all times be distinguished by the 

 pale metallic green colour of the speculum, which is bounded before and behind 

 by a broad white band. The sexes differ conspicuously, and the male displays a 

 striking seasonal change of coloration. (PI. 159.) Length 16 in. [406 mm.]. The male 

 in " full " plumage has the lesser wing-coverts of a pale French grey, the head and 

 neck dark cinnamon-red with hair-like striations of white, a broad white super- 

 ciliary stripe, and a black chin. The long hinder scapulars are of a French grey 

 colour, and these are succeeded by others which are black with broad white median 

 shaft-streaks. The sides of the base of the neck are black with loops of buff, and 

 the fore-breast is of a rufous buff barred with black. The flanks are coarsely vermi- 

 culated with dark grey on a white ground, and the abdomen is white obscurely 

 freckled with grey, while the under tail-coverts are buffish white, obscurely spotted 

 with black, thereby differing from all the other surface-feeding ducks, wherein 

 these coverts are velvety black. In his eclipse dress the male retains the colora- 

 tion of the supernuptial, or " breeding " dress, in so far as the wings are concerned ; 

 for the rest he resembles the female save that the fore-breast is white with sub- 

 crescentic bars of dark brown. The female lacks the brilliancy of colour which 

 characterises the male in regard to the speculum, and has the wing-coverts of a 

 dark grey: the feathers of the upper parts are of a dusky hue margined with buffish 

 white : there is a short white stripe behind the eye, another from the eye to the 

 base of the beak, and there is a dull white patch in the region of the lores. The 

 throat is white, the middle of the neck buffish white with sepia striations, and the 

 flanks are sepia coloured margined with white. The young in down is of a dark 

 chocolate colour, and has the sides of the head pale chesnut, with a chocolate 

 patch behind the eye, and a sinuous line of the same hue along the face curving up 

 behind the ear. Behind the wing is an S-shaped loop of dull white, and there 

 is a buff spot on the thigh. The throat and breast are pale buff, the fore-breast 

 rufous, and the abdomen buff with dusky mottlings. [w. P. P.] 

 VOL. IV. 2 D 



