GARGANEY. 551 



ANAS CIRCIA. 

 GARGANEY. 



(PLATE 66.) 



Anas querquedula, Sriss. Orn. vi. p. 427 (1760) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 20.1(1700). 

 Anas circia, Limi. Si/sf. Nat. i. p. 204 (1760) ; et auctorum plurimorum Gtnelin, 



Latham, (Bonaparte'), (Dresser), (Sounders), &c. 



Querquedula circia (Linn.), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. ii. p. 143, pi. 51 (1824). 

 Querquedula glaucopteros, 1 ^ ^^ ^ 



Querquedula scapular!*, J 



Cyanopterus circia (Linn.'), Hi/ton, Munoar. Anal. p. 130 (1838). 

 Pterocyanea circia (Linn.), Bonap. Cat. Met. Ucc. JBur. p. 71 (1842). 



The Garganey is a somewhat scarce and very local visitor to the British 

 Islands on migration, breeding sparingly in one or two favoured districts. 

 It is a rare visitor to Scotland and to Ireland ; but it would doubtless breed 

 in the latter country if not molested. It nests regularly in Norfolk, 

 where it is thought to be increasing in numbers, and it formerly bred in 

 the fens of Cambridge and Huntingdon before they were drained. It 

 is not improbable that it may breed in several localities in the southern 

 counties of England, where it is known as a rare spring visitor. It has 

 several times been observed in the Shetlands on the autumn migration. 



The geographical distribution of the Garganey is a somewhat peculiar 

 one. It appears to be only an accidental visitor to Iceland and the 

 Faroes, and there are only two instances of its having occurred in Norway ; 

 but it breeds in some numbers in Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic Provinces, 

 Finland, and North-west Russia as far as Archangel. Harvie-Brown and 

 1 s;nv nothing of it in the valley of the Petchora, and in Siberia it appears 

 to be confined to the extreme south. It breeds more or less abundantly 

 throughout Southern Europe, the Caucasus, and Turkestan, and a few are 

 said occasionally to remain to breed in India, Burma, and China. Its winter- 

 quarters are the basins of the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas, 

 India, Burma, Java, Celebes, the Philippines, China, and Japan. On the 

 American continent the Gai'ganey is represented by two allied but per- 

 fectly distinct species the Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors) and the Cin- 

 namon Teal (A. cyanoptera). Both species may be distinguished by their 

 black under tail-coverts ; the former has a large white crescent between the 

 eye and the bill, and the latter has a uniform chestnut head and neck, 

 without any white streak. The female Blue-winged Teal may be 

 distinguished from the female Garganey by having an alar speculum 

 which is bronzed with green. The Blue- winged Teal has been included 

 in the British list on the faith of four alleged occurrences. The first 

 of these (Evans, 'Zoologist/ 1852, p. 3472) was intended to refer 



