434 ANATID.E. 



super cilia, all the neck and lower plumage white, except a black 

 collar, glossed with green behind, all round the lower neck ; upper 

 parts behind the neck dark brown, glossed with metallic green or 

 purple, especially on the mantle and wings ; primaries dark brown 

 on basal halves, then white with the tips black, secondaries like 

 mantle with white tips ; upper tail-coverts dark brown, with narrow 

 white bars and mottling ; sides of breast and flanks white, finely 

 vermiculated with brown ; wing-lining and under tail-coverts dark 

 chocolate-brown. 



In winter the male loses its collar and resembles the female, 

 except that it retains the white on the quills and some of the 

 green gloss on the mantle and wings. 



In females the crown and a line through the lores and eye on 

 each side are brown; narro \vforehead and supercilia, sides of head 

 below eye, neck, and lower parts white, more or less sullied and, 

 on the head and neck, speckled with brown marks that become 

 denned wavy lines on the breast and neck ; upper parts, wings, 

 and tail brown ; secondaries and inner primaries tipped white ; 

 upper tail-coverts white mixed with brown. Young birds resemble 

 females ; nestlings are clad in down of a blackish-brown tint with 

 white stripes and spots. 



In breeding males the bill is black, iris bright red ; legs, toes, 

 and webs black, tarsus and toes at sides dusky yellow ; in winter 

 the upper mandible is brownish and the lower yellowish : in 

 females the bill is brown above, yellowish below ; iris brown ; legs 

 and toes greenish yellow (Oates). 



Length 13; tail 2*5 ; wing 6-5 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape !!. 

 Females are a little smaller. 



Distribution. Throughout the greater part of India, Ceylon, and 

 Burma, also the Andaman s, Malay Peninsula, and the Malay 

 countries to China, the Philippines, Borneo, Java, and Celebes. 

 In India this Teal is rare in Malabar, the Bombay Presidency, and 

 Kattywar, and wanting in the desert parts'of Eajputana, in Sind, 

 and the Western Punjab. It is especially common in Lower 

 Bengal, and is brought to the Calcutta market, according to Hume, 

 in larger numbers than all the other Ducks together. It is common 

 in Pegu and Northern Ceylon, rare in Tenasserim, and generally 

 most abundant in well-wooded country with numerous small ponds 

 and marshes, not in forest tracts. 



Habits, fyc. "This pretty little Groslet," as Jerdon says. " frequents 

 weedy and grassy tanks in moderate or rather large flocks, flies with 

 great rapidity, uttering a peculiar cackling call, and is, when un- 

 disturbed, very familiar and unwary. It breeds generally in old 

 trees, often at some distance from water, occasionally in ruined 

 houses, temples, old chimneys, and the like, laying eight or ten 

 small white eggs." It would be difficult to give a better account 

 in the same space, though it is a mistake to call this duck a goslet. 

 Cotton Teal are common in small weedy ponds around villages ; they 

 dive well, but walk badly ; their call somewhat resembles the words 

 *' Fix bayonets/'' and they are sometimes known by that name. The 

 eggs arelaid in July and August, and measure about 17 by 1-29. 



