MARMARONETTA ANGUSTIROSTRIS, 203 



webs black, or horny-green with the webs and claws dark grey ; the bill bluish- 

 grey, black on the culmen and tip or dusky, bounded at the margins oE the 

 feathers on the forehead and cheeks with a pale leaden-blue line, ^ continued along 

 the margins of both mandibles to near the tip, and a spot of tlie same colour 

 just above the nail ; the irides are brown."' (Hume.) 



Female. — Only differs from the male in being smaller, having the eye-patch 

 less pronounced, and the general plumage duller and more uniform in colour, and 

 the crest also is less developed. 



" Length ] 6*9 to 17-5 inches, expanse 27 to 28, tail from vent 2-8 to 3-7, 

 wing 7*9 to 8'1, wing when closed reaches to within 0-5 to 1-0 of the end of the 

 tail, bill at front 1-6 to 1-75, tarsus 1-4 to 1-5. Weight 1 lb. to 1 lb. 3 ozs." 

 (ffnme.) 



" Length 15'75 inches, expanse 26'5, wing 7"62, tail from vent 2-75. 



" Legs and feet greenish plumbeous ; irides dark brown ; bill dusky plumbeous, 

 darkest on the culmen." (Butler.) 



Young. — " Similar to the female, but all the markings and tints still duller ; 

 the lower parts almost uniform dull pale greyish." (Salvadori.) 



A young female obtained by Major Olivier, and now in the Bombay Natural 

 History Society's collection, has the wing only 7*42 inches, but at the same time 

 has the bill about 1-8. 



The rano-e of the Marbled Teal extends from the countries to the west 

 of the Mediterranean Sea, through those bordering it north and south 

 into Western Asia, India being its eastern limit ; it is also found in the 

 Canaries. 



As regards India, little has been recorded about its habitat since Hume 

 wrote in ' Game-Birds ' : — 



" Its normal range with its (it is presumably only a cold weather 

 visitant) appears to be the whole of Sind (from every Collectorate in which 

 it has been recorded, and where it is extremely common) and Northern 

 Gruzerat, the southern part of the Dehra Clazi Khan district and of 

 Bhawalpiir, in all three of which it is a regular but less abundant visitant. 

 No doubt it will be met with in Kutch and Kathiawar, but it has not l)een 

 thence recorded as yet. 



" But outside these limits it occurs much further east as a straggler. I 

 have liad specimens from ^V^estern Oodeypore and from near Delhi. The 

 late Mr, A. Anderson })rocnred it in the North-W^est Pi'ovinces, at 

 Futtehgarh, and in Oudli near Hurdui ; and I myself procured two freshly 

 killed specimens in the (-alcutta market, the one in December and the other 

 in February, which had been captured about twenty-two miles south-west 

 and some eighteen miles west, respectively, of the metropolis. '•" 



Since this was written the Marbled Teal has been obtained in Kutch, 



