INDIAN D dCKS AND THEIR A LUES. 103 



same; in old females the abdomen and centre of the breast are pure 

 white^ in younger birds more or less marked with brown ; outer 

 secondaries broadly and inner primaries very narrowly tipped with 

 white ; remainder of wings, upper plumage and tail brown, ihe 

 scapulars and back being occasionally faintly glossed, upper-tail coverts 

 finely stippled with white. 



Bill brown, dark olive, paler and yellowish on mandible, commissure 

 and gape ; iris red-brown ; legs and feet dull slate-yellow, more or less 

 smudged with blackish-green ; claws light yellow-brown. 



Length about 12" ; wing 6" or a trifle over ; tail about 2'75" ; eulmen 

 about 0*9" ; tarsus nearly 1". < 



Male in Winters — Similar to the female, but always retains the con- 

 spicuous white patch on the primaries (Salvadori). 



Does this little duck always assume a winter plumage, when fully 

 adult? I doubt it, for I have males shot in winter just as glossy and 

 fully plumaged as any to be obtained during the breeding season and hot 

 weather. 



Young. — Like the female, but even more stippled about the head with 

 brown, and also more banded with light brown on the flanks* 



Young in down. — " Upper parts, flanks and under-tail coverts blackish 

 broad brown ; a broad superciliary stripe, cheeks, throat, front neck and 

 breast white ; a brown line through the eyes ; two broad white spots on 

 eaoh side of the back— one near the base of the wings, and the other 

 much larger on the side of the rump ; feathers of the tail blaokish, very 

 long and stiff." - 



The Cotton Teal is found almost throughout India, Burma ' and 

 Ceylon, and extends also to China and the Phillipines, Sunda Islands 1 ; 

 and the Celebes. \ 



In India proper it may be said to have its stronghold in Eastern 

 Bengal, is. still very common in Western Bengal and Assam, less so in 

 the Eastern Punjab and Bajputana, epecially so in the cold weather,' 

 and actually rare towards the west of the Empire. Barnes says that 

 it is not found either in Guzerat or Scind, but it has been recorded from 

 both places since his book was written. In Orissa they are common 

 enough, and in parts of Madras fairly so j from Malabar I can find no 

 record of its occurrence, though I believe there is one somewhere, could 

 I only remember it. In Ceylon it appears to be -more or less confined 



