^X GALERICULATA. 55 



brown, with the outer web glossed green and tipped white, except that next 

 the innermost one, which is all of this colour ; primaries brown, glossed green, 

 and with broad edges of silver-grey on the outer webs. Axillaries brown ; 

 under wing-coverts mixed brown and grey. 



" Iris dark brown with a yellowish-white outer ring ; bill reddish-brown, with 

 the nail bluish flesh-coloured ; tarsus and toes reddish-yellow, membranes 

 blackish." (Schreul:) 



Wing 8-8 to 9-4 inches ; tail 4*2 to 4*6 ; bill, cuhnen I'l to l-2o, from gape 

 1-5 to l-4o ; tarsus 1-3 to 1-4; length about 16 to 18. 



In one specimen in the British Museum the whole chin, and in another the 

 border of the angle of the chin, is white. 



Adult female. — Head and full crest grey, a narrow line starting above the 

 eye and passing round the front to the back and bordering the crown white ; 

 sides of the head pale grey, grading into the white of the chin, throat, and upper 

 neck ; the face is sometimes broadly white and sometimes wholly grey, and at 

 other times there is a broad or narrow band of white next the bill ; whole 

 remaining upper parts and wing-coverts brown, more or less tinged with grey or 

 olive-green ; lower neck, breast, sides, and flanks the same colour as the back, 

 each feather with a pale spot near the tip, these being very large on the flank ; 

 remainder of lower parts white; primaries brown, slightly glossed green and 

 broadly tipped white, two of the inner secondaries forming a deep blue-green 

 speculum, submargiued black and margined white; innermost secondaries the 

 same colour as the back. 



As Avith other ducks with white underparts, these are often more or less 

 tinged with rusty. 



Wing about 8 inches ; tail about 4 ; bill, culraen 1"05 to 1*20, from gape 1*2 

 to 1-32; tarsus 1-2 to 1-3. 



The male in post-nuptial plumage resembles the female, but this sex, as Oates 

 points out, " may be separated from males .... by the oblique white stripe which 

 may always be found on the outer web of the first purple feather of the speculum. 

 Thia stripe is just below the tips of the wing-coverts and is always absent in the 

 male." The young male in first plumage also resembles the female with the 

 exception just noted ; it is, however, generally rather bigger and often more 

 clearly coloured. 



Amongst the first indications of sex plumage assumed by the young male is 

 the deepening of the plumage of the breast and upper neck. A specimen (b) in 

 the British Museum collection shows this beautifull}^ and looks much as if the 

 change here undergone was one of coloi*ation in the feathers themselves. 



The same bird has the broad secondary partially developed, but has no white 

 edging to the outer web, so presumably this is not assumed until the second 

 year ; this feather is also not so much falcated as in the adult bird. The adult 

 coloration of the scapulars is only indicated by a few blue tints, but the black 

 and white bars on the sides of the breast are well advanced. 



Nestling. — Above hair-brown, the edge of the wing pale buff and two 

 indefinite bars of the same colour on the sides, one in front and one behind the 

 thigh, Underparts wholly pale buff ; a dark brown streak running from behind 

 the eye to the neck and another from behind the ear-coverts. 



