94 INDIAN DICKS. 



upper and under tail-coverts buffy-white ; quills and tail dark brown." 

 {Salvadori.) 



The bill varies from dusUy black, black o\\ the terminal third and slaty at the 

 base, to dusky throughout, merely tipped black, and much shaded with bluish- 

 lead colour at base and basal half. In the same way legs and feet vary from 

 quite pale dusky plumbeous, more or less of a blue tint, to almost black. 

 According to Merrill, the legs are bright slaty-blue, but personally I have seen 

 no Indian birds with brightly tinged legs. Claws black ; the irides are light to 

 dark brown. 



" Length 18 to 20 inches, wing 8-10 to 8-90, tail 2-2, culmen 1-66 to 1-05, 

 tarsus 2-10 to 2-4, middle toe 2-30 to 2-8." [Salvadori.) 



Jerdon gives the length as 21 inches and wing 9^. The largest I have seen 

 had the wing 9-20 inches, which is practically the same. 



The female. — Only differs from the male in being slightly smaller: length 

 17 to 19 inches, wing 7-85 to 8-25. A female obtained by Capt. Shelley from 

 Nyasaland measured, wing 9*1 inches, tarsus 2-1, and culmen 2-2. This gives a 

 larger bird, with proportionately even larger bill, than any Indian bird which I 

 have seen or of which I can find the measurements. Three other birds have 

 been obtained in Xyasa. 



Birds of the first year are duller and paler, the upper tail-coverts are 

 narrowly edged with brown, and the wing-coverts are a dull chestnut-brown. 



Young in down. — "Upper parts greyish-brown; lower parts whitish; a 

 white band across the occiput, interrupted by the brown band which runs along 

 the hind-neck ; a brown band from the ears to the hind-neck ; no white patches 

 on the sides of the back ; a whitish band across the wing." (Salvadori.) 



Hume gives the weight of an adult male as 1 lb. 12 ozs. and that of a female 

 as 1 lb. 10 ozs. I have shot a male which weighed 2 lbs. exactly, and which was 

 a very fine heavy bird. I have never weighed a female or, at least, recorded any 

 weights of such. 



The Greater Whistling-Teal has its headquarters wuthin Indian 

 limits in Eastern Bengal, where in parts it is exceedingly numerous ; 

 thence it extends into Assam, where, however, it is not common, and 

 seems gradually to become less common towards the west and north 

 o£ the Empire and to extend a very short way to the south. Mr. C. 

 B. Sherman said that he found it very common in Travancore, but 

 it is most probable that be mistook the Common Whistling-Teal for 

 this bird. Jerdon also found it fairly common in some parts of the 

 Deccan. 



As regards Burmali, Gates, in ' Birds of British Burmab,' writes : — 

 ^' The Larger Whistling-Teal is comparatively a rare bird in Burmah^ 

 except in the iiorthern portions of Pegu, where I found it very abundant 

 in the Engmah swamp, twenty-five miles south of Prome. ('apt. 

 Wardlaw Ramsay procured it at Tongboo ; and I observed it several 



