TEAL 285 



vet black ; lateral tail-coverts delicate buff colour, with a 

 narrow band of velvet black at the base ; under surface 

 of tail-feathers ash-grey ; legs, toes, and membranes brown- 

 ish-grey. 



The whole length fourteen inches and a half. From 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing seven inches and a 

 quarter ; the first and second quill-feathers nearly equal ; 

 and the flight of the species very rapid. 



Of male Teal observed constantly last summer, some 

 had lost the sexual distinctions of the plumage by the 27th 

 of July, and all were changed by the 4th of August ; re- 

 maining like the females, till they acquired new feathers 

 at the autumn moult. The female has the whole of the 

 head speckled with dark brown, on a ground colour of 

 light brown ; upper part of back and scapulars dark 

 brown, each feather with two narrow transverse bars of 

 buffy-brown ; wing like the male, but the speculum has 

 more velvet black, less green, and no purple colour ; chin 

 pale brown ; lower part of neck on the front and sides 

 varied with two shades of brown, in crescentic marks ; 

 breast white ; sides, flanks, belly, and under tail-coverts 

 dull white, spotted with dark brown. 



The trachea of the male Teal is about five inches in 

 length, the tube rather narrower near the middle than at 

 any other part ; the bony enlargement of the size and form 

 represented in the figure below. 



