ANATID.E. 351 



652. Mareca CapensiS. (Gmcl.) L. ; Cape Wigeon, 



Lath. Geii. Syn., 6, 519. 



HEAD, ash-grey, profusely streaked with blackish dots ; lower 

 part of neck and breast, ash-grey, profusely variegated with 

 reddish-brown broken bars, giviug the plumage a scaled 

 appearance ; feathers of the back, dark reddish-brown, each 

 feather edged with lighter ; speculum of the wing, bright- 

 green, edged with white and black ; shoulders dark-ash ; legs 

 reddish ; webs dusky ; claws black ; bill red, the base black. 

 Length, 19"; wing, 8J"; tail, 2f. Female smaller than the 

 male. 



Usually confounded here with the Smee Eendtje, in company with 

 which I nave shot it at Beaufort, the Knysna, on the Cape Flats, and 

 at Vogel Vley. At this latter ^lace I killed one near a nest which 

 contained a single egg ; it was probably one of this species, and is of 

 a dirty greenish-white throughout : axis, I" 10"' j diam., V 6'". 



Genus ANAS, Linnaeus. 



Bill longer than the head, higher than broad at the base, 

 nearly of equal breadth throughout ; the culmen nearly 

 straight, and depressed to the tip, which is armed with a 

 strong, broad nail ; the lamellae of the upper mandible hardly 

 visible beyond the lateral margin, strong and widely set, 

 especially near the middle ; the nostrils placed near the base 

 of the culmen, lateral, and oval ; wings moderate and pointed, 

 with the tertials lengthened and acute, and the first quill the 

 longest ; tail short and wedge-shaped ; tarsi shorter than the 

 middle toe, and compressed ; toes united by a full web, and 

 the hind toe small, and somewhat lobed. 



653. Anas Erythrorhyncha, Gmei. Sys. Nat. ; 



Tadorna Erythrorhyncha, Shaw, Vol. 12, p. 75; 

 Pcecilonitta Erythrorhyncha, Smith, 111. S. Af. Zool., 

 PI. 104 ; Smee Eendtje of Colonists. 



UPPER parts, brown, tinged faintly with green, each feather 

 margined with pale-pinkish ; below brown, each feather so 

 broadly margined with white, as to cause that colour to 

 predominate ; head and neck dark-brown, the latter minutely 

 mottled with dirty- white ; chin and lower parts of the cheeks 

 below the eye, white ; on the wings a broad bar of pink, 

 crossed at the upper side by a narrow green line ; centre of 

 the bill brown, the rest pink; iris hazel. Length, 18"; 

 wing, 8J"; tail, 3". 



The - { Red-billed Teal" is common and very generally distributed. 

 It is usually found in little flocks of six or eight individuals, frequent- 



