26 TEAL. 



thick lining of down and feathers: the whole is of rather 

 large size. 



The eggs are from eight, ten, or eleven, to fifteen in 

 number. They have been found under a furze bush without 

 any nest. They are white, with a tinge of buff or cream- 

 colour. 



Male; weight, about eleven ounces or a little over, on to 

 twelve ounces; length one foot two inches and a half, to one 

 foot three inches. The bill is dark lead-colour nearly black, 

 the tip black. The feathers about the base of the under 

 mandible are thickly speckled with dull green. These green 

 spots extend round the bill, getting darker underneath, and 

 widening out at the chin, where they form a spot of con- 

 siderable size, nearly black> Bound the edge of this black 

 spot a very narrow band of light buff extends along the 

 chesnut on the head, over the eye, and loses itself in the 

 chesnut at the back of the neck. Another stripe of buff 

 branches off from the former in front of the eye, and extends 

 under it, where it becomes nearly white, and ends at the 

 ear coverts. Iris, pale hazel brown; the eyelid white, forming 

 a spot below the lower line and the eye; between these two 

 light bands round the eye, and extending a short way down 

 the neck, rich light blue, glossed with deep green, gradually 

 narrowing until it joins the chesnut at the back of the neck, 

 at which point is a pitch of black, slightly burnished with 

 purple; underneath the lower pale line, extending to the chin 

 and a short way down the neck, rich chesnut. Head on the 

 forehead, crown, and sides, and a short way down the back 

 and sides of the neck, very rich chesnut brown; these feathers 

 are slightly elongated, almost concealing the black patch. 

 Chin, black; throat and neck in front, chesnut; breast on 

 the upper part, yellowish white, spotted with black, and with 

 a tinge of purple; below dull dusky white; on the sides barred 

 or waved with narrow zigzag black and white lines; back on 

 the upper part, pale grey, minutely zigzaged with darker 

 waved lines; on the lower part the dark brown colour is so 

 thick as to appear nearly black. 



The wings expand to the width of two feet eleven inches; 

 the first and second quills are nearly equal; greater wing 

 coverts, greyish brown, deeply tipped with white, forming a 

 bar; those next to the body are tipped with yellowish rufous; 

 underneath the quills are light blackish or grey; the shafts 



