FALCATED TEAL. 117 



feathers; the neck and throat are pure ■white, surronnded by a rich 

 velvet black collar; upper part of the back, chest, and upper wing 

 coverts grey and white, in zigzag, more or less curved, and circular 

 lines; upper wing coverts grey, terminating above in black, below 

 in much lighter mottled grey, while five or six of the feathers rising 

 immediately beneath them are much prolonged and sickle-shaped, 

 extending over the wing; these falcated feathers have white" shafts 

 with the outer webs black, beautifully fringed with white, and the 

 inner web black, going off into lighter grey; lower part of the back, 

 rump, and upper tail coverts, brown, with the tail velvety black, 

 flanked on each side by a broad fan-like expanded cream-coloured 

 tuft of feathers with black bases ; the secondaries are rich dark green 

 on their outer webs, forming the speculum, light brown on their 

 inner webs ; primaries light brown; abdomen mottled grey; the flanks, 

 down to the tail, richly and beautifully marked by waves, zigzags, 

 and circular lines of grey and white; under wing coverts white. 

 Legs and feet black brown; beak pitch black. 



The female, according to Middendorfl"'s figure, ("Sibirische Reise," 

 vol. ii, pi. 2S,) has the head, back, and breast dark brown, with the 

 edges of each feather russet; lesser wing coverts whitish; speculum 

 dark green; wings and tail dark brown; beak and feet black. 



Of the young Dr. Schrenck (opus cit.) says: — "Of my five young 

 specimens, four are from Amur and one Kamtschatka. There are four 

 males and one female, in youthful plumage, the males fully fledged, 

 the female with down on its wings. Both sexes are at first sight very 

 similar, but they are easily distinguished on examination. The young 

 female has a great resemblance to the old one, but differs in being 

 darker and unicolorous above, while the under parts, from the chin to 

 the under tail coverts, have the same colour and markings, the under 

 tail feathers being grey brown, bordered only with rust yellow, while 

 in the adult female they are marked with this colour in the middle 

 concentrically. On the upper parts next to the dark colouring of 

 the head there is a broad band, from the forehead to the neck, 

 which is almost unicolorous brown black, but when seen in light it 

 has a feeble greenish lustre, and near the eyes the feathers have a 

 slight yellowish grey border. The cheeks and auditory orifices are 

 entirely as in the old female, streaked with yellowish grey and black; 

 the throat duller and almost unicolorous brown grey, whilst the 

 streaky markings of the old bird are hardly visible; the shoulders 

 and upper part of the back are likewise duller and unicolorous. 

 The lower part of the back to the rump and the upper tail feathers 

 are almost unicolorous black brown, the first scarcely marked, the 



