40S ANATLVE. 



and primaries hair-brown ; lesser wing-coverts smoke-grey ; the 

 speculum blackish-green, glossed with purple, bordered above by 

 a pale ferruginous bar, and below by a white one ; tertiaries long 

 and acuminate, velvet-black, with a broadish edging of greyish 

 or yellowish- white ; breast and abdomen white, the sides of 

 both with transverse black and whitish lines, and the latter 

 minutely speckled with grey towards the vent ; under tail-coverts 

 black. 



The female^ has the head and neck reddish-brown, speckled 

 and streaked with dusky; the upper plumage umber-brown, the 

 feathers edged with reddish-white ; wing-coverts brown, edged 

 white ; lower parts pale fulvous, obscurely spotted with brown ; 

 speculum dull without the green gloss ; tail, with the two medial 

 feathers, scarcely longer than the others. 



The Pintail is common in Sind during the cold season ; 

 /airly common in Guzerat, and Central India ; but is somewhat 

 *less common in the Deccan. The Pintail is a very excellent 

 bird for the table and is much sought after in consequence. 



GENUS, Mareca, Stephens. 



Bill short, raised at the base, narrowing towards the tip ; 

 nail moderate ; lamella? distant, projecting in the middle of the 

 bill ; tail short, cuneate, of fourteen feathers ; hind-toe small 

 with a narrow web. 



Mareca penelope, Lin. 



963. Jerdon's Birds'of India, Vol. II, p. 804 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 30 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 

 Vol. IX, p. 438 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, 

 p. 299 ; Game Birds of India, Vol. Ill, p. 197 ; Swinhoe 

 and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 137. 



THE WIGEON. 



o . Length, 19 to 19 5 ; expanse, 32*75 to 34'5 ; wing, 10 to 

 10'6; tail, 4 to 4*6 ; tarsus, 14 to 1-6; bill from gape, 17 to 

 1-82; weight, 1 T 5 B to 1| Ibs. 



? . Length, 17'8 to 19'25 ; expanse, 31'5 to 34 ; wing, 9'3 to 

 10'2 ; tail, 3'5 to 5-0 ; tarsus, 1'4 to 1'6 ; bill from gape, 1'68 to 

 1-8 ; weight, 1-& to 1|| Ibs. 



. BjUjpale delicatejrreyish-lavender or leaden, rarely a slatyjbjue, 



I] wrUT the^nostnls, tipof upper, a~53Fall but the basal portion of 



Ijthe rami of the lower mandible, black, and often with a narrow 



black line along the margins of the upper mandible also. 



Sometimes only the tip of the lower mandible is black, the rest 



of the same blue as the upper one, but dingier ; irides vary from 



hazel to deep brown ; the legs and feet vary from pale drab- 



brown with a faint olive tinge, through dusky-leaden to light 



plumbeous ; in all cases the webs are dusky, occasionally almost 



black, and very often with a dusky shade over the joints. 



