iv ANATIDAE I2/ 



America generally, has a whitish head with black spots, which 

 cover the crown in the female only. M. sibilatrix, reaching from 

 Chili and Paraguay to Patagonia and the Falklands, is chiefly 

 black and white with blue-green nape and black speculum. 



Chaulelasmus streperus, the Gadwall, which breeds in East 

 Aiiglia and South Spain, and is apparently spreading thence, occurs 

 in the subarctic regions of both Worlds, and migrates to Shoa, 

 India, China, Mexico, and Jamaica. C. couesi of the Fanning 

 group may be distinct. The head and upper neck are light brown 

 with dusky spots; the back is blackish with grey markings, 

 the rump black ; the lower parts are white with black crescents 

 on the breast ; the wing-coverts grey, chestnut, and black. The 

 female is dark brown varied with rufous. The speculum is white. 

 The habits are as in most fresh-water Ducks, the eggs being buff. 



Eunetta falcata of East Asia and Japan is a fine bird with 

 chestnut crown, bronzy-purple cheeks, green occipital crest, white 

 neck ringed with green, grey and black upper parts, and lower 

 surface waved with black and white. The white-margined speculum 

 is green, the long thin sickle -shaped inner secondaries are black 

 and white, and a patch on each side of the tail is buff. Both 

 upper and under tail-coverts exceed the rectrices. The female 

 resembles that of the Gadwall, but has a black speculum. 



Anas boscas, the Mallard or Wild Duck, ranges from about the 

 Arctic Circle to the Azores, North Africa, Kashmir, and the United 

 States, being found southward in winter to India and Panama. 

 The head is green with a white collar, the upper parts are grey and 

 brown, the rump is black, the speculum purple with margins of 

 black and white, the breast chestnut, the four curly central rectrices 

 being black. The female is brown and buff with a green speculum. 

 In the habits there is little that is peculiar, but the eggs are 

 greenish. The coloration in the remaining species is usually dusky, 

 nor do the sexes differ greatly. A. wyvilliana inhabits the 

 Hawaiian, and A. laysanensis the Laysan Islands; A. melleri 

 Madagascar ; A. obscura, with its two local forms A. fulmgula and 

 A. maculosa, Eastern North America; A. diazi and A. aberti Mexico; 

 A. luzonica the Philippines ; A. superciliosa the ' Malay Archi- 

 pelago arid Australian Eegion ; A. poecilorhyncha, with red, yellow, 

 and black bill, India, Ceylon, and Burma ; A. zonorhyneha, where 

 the bill is yellow and black and the feet reddish, Eastern Asia ; 

 A. undulata and A. sparsa, also with yellow and black bill, but 



