450 AtfATID^E. 



Coloration. Male in full plumage. Crown and nape brownish 

 black ; a broad white superciliary stripe from above the front of 

 the eye to the side of the nape ; forehead, lores, sides of the head 

 and of the upper neck, throat, and fore neck rufous, or nutmeg- 

 brown, streaked with white, chin black ; back, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts dark brown, the feathers with pale greyish edges ; 

 scapulars lanceolate, black, with broad white shaft-stripes, the outer 

 webs of the outer scapulars ashy grey ; tail-feathers and quills 

 dark brown ; speculum formed by outer webs of secondaries glossy 

 greyish green, between two white bands formed by the tips of the 

 secondaries themselves and of their greater coverts, tertiaries with 

 narrow white borders; wing-coverts lavender-grey; feathers of 

 breast and sides of breast barred with concentric bands of dark 

 brown and buff ; abdomen \vhite, speckled with brown towards 

 vent ; flanks finely and wavily barred with dark brown, longest 



Fig. 117. Bill of Q. drew.. \. 



flank-feathers with a broad subapical white band, then a narrow 

 brown bar and a dark grey tip ; under tail-coverts buffy white 

 with brown spots. 



After breeding, the drake moults into a plumage resembling 

 that of the female, except that he retains the speculum and pale 

 grey wing-coverts. The passage from this into the full plumage 

 appears to take place somewhat gradually, the dark breast being 

 assumed before the feathers of the head and neck are changed. 

 The change is not, I believe, completed in India till about the 

 end of February. Certainly in parts of India where this Teal 

 abounded, though birds with the dark breast-feathers were 

 common in December, I never saw drakes with white supercilia 

 and nutmeg-brown sides of the head till about March. I may 

 have only seen young birds, but I cannot find a single winter skin 

 of a drake Garganey in fall plumage in the Hume collection ; 

 and the only specimen I can find in the British Museum (a very 

 bad one) is that of a Norfolk bird that has evidently been in con- 

 finement, and is consequently worthless as evidence. 



Female. Upper parts dark brown, the feathers with pale edges ; 

 sides of head and neck and the fore neck whitish, finely streaked 

 with dark brown ; a superciliary stripe from above the eye and a 

 band from the lores below the eye paler, a buff spot on the lores ; 



