256 
ANAS CAST AN E A 
Immature Male: At first like female, but about the time when the young female begins to assume 
the black breast-spots, the young male becomes black on the throat (Blaauw, 1916). According to 
Mathews the speculum is green, and not coppery red. 
Male in Eclip.se Plumage: It does not seem to be knoMTi just how much of an eclipse plumage is 
assumed. Mr. Blaauw thinks that the adult males “go back” in color a good deal after the breeding 
season, and for a while the bright colors are clouded over, even the white areas being less bright. It is 
indeed a curious fact that males in adult plumage should be so uncommon in this species, and really 
fine specimens are rare in museums. 
Young in Down: Very like the Mallard and the Common Teal and about the same color above and 
below, although some specimens at Tring appeared very dark above and nearly pure white under- 
neath. It is to be distinguished from the young of the ^lallard by a very broad superciliary buff- 
colored stripe running back nearly to the occiput. The trans-ocular stripe is usually broader and 
blacker than in the Mallard and extends farther forward. There is usually a well-marked face streak 
from near the bill to the aural region, but sometimes this is irregular or poorly defined. The light- 
colored body spots are the same as in the Common Teal or the Mallard. The nestling of this species 
is said to be darker than the yoimg of the Gray Teal, Anas gibberifrons. 
DISTRIBUTION 
Australia 
The confusion between this species and the Gray Teal (Anas gibberifrons), which so long occupied 
ornithologists, makes it almost impossible to determine the range with any degree of accuracy. Not 
only many of the older records, but also a number of the more recent ones, undoubtedly refer to the 
Gray Teal. 
The present species probably does not occur outside Australia, Tasmania and possibly New Zea- 
land. Earlier writers have recorded it from such diverse localities as Java, Celebes, Sumba, New 
Caledonia and New Guinea, but Meyer and Wiglesworth (1898) who discuss the various references 
to these places, conclude (and I think rightly) that all of these records refer to Alias gibberifrons, 
which is practically indistinguishable from the females of Anas castanea. 
In Australia this species does not seem to be anywhere very common. It appears to be essentially 
a coastal bird and is rarely, if ever, found in any numbers inland. Carter (in Mathews, 
1914-15) reported thousands on Lake Muir, West Australia, but in a more recent 
West article (Carter and Mathews, 1920) they speak of it as very scarce there in 1916. Carter 
Australia north of Carnarvon. Other records for West Australia are 
those for Moora (Orton and Sandland, 1913), for the Houtman Rocks (R. Hall, 1902) and Bremer 
Bay (W. B. Alexander, 1916). C. G. Gibson (1909) took one at Belladonia and saw some thirty birds 
on the reef near Eyre. Farther north Carter (1910) met with it in some numbers on the Northwest 
Cape and found it also on the Salt (Pallenup) River, southeast of Broome Hill (fide Mathews, 1914- 
15). Ramsay (1888) has recorded the species for Derby, and Soderberg (1919) met with it in Decem- 
ber on the Fitzroy River near Nooncanbah. 
There seem to be no records for the north coast of Australia, and even in Queensland it has not 
been recorded from any place north of Rockingham Bay. Ramsay (1888) mentions this as well as 
Port Denison and Wide Bay as specific localities where it was found in Queensland, 
and Ingram (1908) met with this Teal at Inkerman Station, North Queensland. It 
is said to be common at Peel Island which I have been imable to locate on the map (Agnew, 1921). 
It is a more common bird in New South Wales and has been recorded for the Richmond and Clar- 
New South ence River districts (Ramsay, 1888; Savidge, in North, 1913), the Mossgiel district 
Wales (Bennett, in North, 1913), and is said to be a common breeder in the Mudgee dis- 
trict (Cox and Hamilton, 1889). R. Hall (1909) says it breeds in the Murray River region. The U.S. 
Queensland 
