EUROPEAN TEAL 
213 
a buffy patch. Under tail-coverts black. Outer wing-coverts plain blue-gray, except the greater 
ones which form a conspicuous buffy anterior wing-bar. This bar may be white, and is always 
lighter externally than internally. Speculum black externally and green internally, with a narrow 
buffy posterior wing-bar. Primaries brown. Outer tertial forming a black edge to the speculum, 
the rest nearly plain brown. Under wing-coverts gray and white, axillars white. 
Iris dark brown. Bill black or nearly so. Legs and toes gray, greenish or brownish, with the webs 
nearly black. 
Wing 175-188 mm. (as long as 193 according to Hartert); bill 34-38; tarsus 29-33. 
Weight 8 to 12 ounces (0.22 to 0.34 kilograms). 
Adult Fem.\le : Brown above and cream-colored below. The edges of the feathers of the mantle and 
scapulars are lighter brown and the mantle is irregularly barred. Top of the head dark brown; 
cheeks buff, finely spotted with dark brown; chin and throat sometimes immaculate, but usually 
spotted like the cheeks. An indistinct postorbital stripe of dark brown can usually be made out. 
Breast spotted; rest of lower parts whitish, with indistinct spots or streaks. Flanks mottled; wing as 
in male but the speculum lacks the black border formed by the ornamental tertials. 
Iris same as in the male. Bill not so dark-colored. Tarsus greenish or brownish gray as in the male. 
In summer the under parts are more spotted, due to wear at the tips of the feathers. 
Wing 165-175 mm.; culmen 33-36; tarsus 28-32. 
Fem.\le in First (Juven.i.l) Plumage: Very much like the summer adult, but the lower abdomen 
is more indistinctly spotted and streaked. The mantle is inclined to be more uniform in appearance, 
and the tail-feathers are always blunt at the tips. The top of the head is usually darker, the 
feathers lacking most of their light edges, but none of these color characters appears constant 
except the abdominal spotting which easily separates the young female in August from the adult 
female in winter. It is more difficult to tell the young female from the breeding female except by 
the obvious signs of wear in the latter. 
Male in First Plumage: At first not to be distinguished from the female but by September or 
October one or two of the following characters will be present : a well-marked black internal border 
to the speculum; light-colored, wavy bars on the mantle; a few indistinctly vermiculated feathers 
on the mantle or scapulars; one or two round spots on the breast; or one or two vermiculated feathers 
on the lower flanks. The spotting of the abdomen usually vanishes by September and by November 
the young male is rapidly putting on his adult dress. The complete dress is probably seldom perfect 
before March. Millais (1902) maintains that males in first plumage may be distinguished from young 
females by the bluer gray color of the shoulder of the wing, and the brighter color of the green specu- 
lum, but this I cannot agree with. 
Male in Eclipse: I have no specimens at hand, but I suspect that European Teal in this plumage 
cannot be told from the American Green-wing with whose eclipse plumage I am familiar. 
Downy Young: In general appearance like the young of the Mallard but darker, especially on the 
top of the head and on the back. There is a dark streak through the eye, a dark ear-patch and a 
superciliary light streak. The cheeks are rather richly colored and the light spots on the body and 
wings are small. New-hatched young are of course exceedingly small. 
