GARGANEY. 553 



breadth from l - 4 to 1'3 inch. It is impossible to distinguish eggs of the 

 Garganey from those of the Teal, but, fortunately for the egg-collector, the 

 down of the Garganey cannot easily be mistaken for that of any other 

 British Duck ; it is about the size of that of the Teal, not so warm a 

 brown in colour, but its most striking characteristic is the peculiar long 

 white tips, which are much more conspicuous even than those on the 

 down of the Wigeon and Shoveller. 



Like the Teal, the Garganey does not sit so long upon its eggs as most 

 Ducks do, incubation only lasting from twenty-one to twenty-two days. 

 As is the case with most Ducks, the male is very attentive to the female 

 until his first moult begins, which is usually before the eggs are hatched. 

 The entire charge of the young falls upon the mother, who is deserted by 

 her mate until he has passed through his second moult and acquired his 

 nuptial plumes late in autumn. 



In many respects the Garganey is intermediate in its colours, as it is in 

 size, between the Shoveller and the Teal. The adult male in nuptial dress 

 has the crown and nape black, glossed with green and purple, and margined 

 with a narrow band of white ; the chin is black, but the rest of the head 

 and neck is chestnut-brown streaked with white ; the breast is pale chestnut 

 broadly banded with black. In the colour of the upper parts, especially in 

 the wings, it closely resembles the Shoveller, except that the broad white 

 band down the upper scapulars is absent. The underparts below the breast 

 closely resemble those of the Pintail, except that the under tail-coverts 

 are white spotted with dark brown, the latter being a feature in which it 

 differs from all the other British species in this genus. Bill black ; legs 

 and feet greyish brown; irides hazel. The general colour of the upper 

 parts of the adult female is dark brown, each feather with a pale margin, 

 and the scapulars with a brownish-buff shaft-streak ; the margins on the 

 head and wing-coverts are very obscure, except on the tips of the greater 

 wing-coverts, which, with the white tips of the secondaries, form two bars 

 across the wing, but there is no metallic gloss on the feathers between 

 them ; the eye-stripe is very indistinct. The general colour of the under- 

 parts is white, with ill-defined spots on the lower throat, upper breast, 

 flanks, and under tail-coverts. Young in first plumage closely resemble 

 adult females, but are darker and more suffused with rufous on the breast, 

 and in the males the wing-coverts are slightly suffused with lavender-grey. 

 Males in first nuptial dress are browner on the head, more obscurely barred 

 on the breast, and the elongated scapulars are without the metallic green 

 gloss on the margins. Adult males in moulting-plumage closely resemble 

 adult females, but are darker in colour, and may be distinguished by the 

 alar speculum. Young in down closely resemble those of the Mallard. 



VOL. in. 2 o 



