Novelties, — Mareca albogularis. 303 



Mareca albogularis, 8p. Nov. "t' 



Allied to M. punctata, but smaller ; chin, throat, and front of neck, white. 



It seems to me that this Andaman widg-eon is distinct from 

 the Australian bird. It is certainly not Colonel Tytler's Q. anda- 

 manensis, which he has often told me was a true teal, with blue 

 wing-Sj and such a teal I venture to assert will surely turn up. 



Of punctata, Schlegel gives the dimensions : wing-, 8*2 to 

 9-1 ; the tarsi, 1-45 to 1-65 ; bill, 1-65 to 1-8. Our birds as will 

 be seen are mucli smaller. Again, none of our birds have the 

 conspicuous white spots on either side of the vent wliieh all the 

 descriptions of pimctata that I can meet with dwell on. Is 

 this perchance a seasonal sign, like the white thig-h patch 

 in the cormorants? The conspicuously white chin throat and 

 front of neck, which characterizes all the seven specimens 

 that I possess, is alluded to in no description, and is at variance 

 with some. In all our birds the first secondaries are conspicuously 

 margined, and all but the last two or three conspicuously tipped 

 with white, in some slightly tinged with buff. No one mentions 

 this peculiarity in regard to jmnctata. Schlegel, it is true says, 

 *' rec trices du second ordre voisines des tertiares h. barbe externa 

 blanche,^^ which as it stands is nonsense, but even supposing 

 rectrices to be a mistake for quills, it is the secondary next the 

 j)7'imaries, and not next the tertiaries, which is edged with white. 



Any how if our birds nxe pimctatn ^ the desci-iptions I have 

 hitherto met with are so imperfect and unsatisfactory, that it will 

 be useful to have a more accurate record of its winter plumage. 



Dimensions. — Males, length, 17 to 18; expanse, 24'5 to 27; 

 tail from vent, 4 to 4'2; wing, 7'8 to 8; tarsus, 1-3 to 1*4; bill 

 at front, 1*4; from gape, 1*8; wings, when closed^ reach to within 

 from 2 to 2-2 of end of tail; weight, 1 lb. 



Females, length, 15-5 to 16; expanse, 24 to 25*5 ; tail from 

 vent, 3-25 to 3-5; wing, 7-25 to 7*4; tarsus, 1-25 to 1-35; bill at 

 front, 1-3 to 1-35; from gape, 1-65 to 1-75; wings, when closed, 

 reach to within from 1 to 1*75 of end of tail ; weight, 12 oz. 



Description. — Legs and feet, greenish blue, to plumbeous ; webs, 

 usually darker ; claws, horny ; bill, plumbeous ; nail black, in 

 some the lower mandible tinged with, in one the terminal two- 

 third of this, pink; irides, reddish brown to deep brownish red. 



Top and back of the head and nape, dark umber brown ; 

 chin, throat, and front of the neck, white ; face and sides of the 

 head, brown ; the lower parts of the cheeks and ear coverts more 

 or less mingled with brownish white. Some specimens with a 



