MADAGASCAN TEAL 
ANAS BERNIERI (Hartiaub) 
(Plate 36) 
Synonymy 
Querquedula bernieri Hartlaub (ex J. Verreaux, MS.), Journ. f. Ornith., vol. 8, p. 173, 
1860. 
Anas bernieri Vinson, in Dupre, Trois mois a Madagascar, p. 262, 1863. 
Anas assimilis Schlegel, Mus. d’ Hist. Nat. des Pays-Bas, Anseres, p. 59, 1866 (part). 
Dafila vinsoni Grandidier, Rev. et Mag. de Zool., ser. 2, vol. 19, pp. 87, 255, 1867. 
Dafila bernieri Grandidier, Rev. et Mag. de Zool., ser. 2, vol. 19, p. 255, 1867, 
Querquedula gibberifrons Grandidier (nec S. Muller), Rev. et Mag. de Zool., ser. 2, 
vol. 20, p. 6, 1868. 
Anas gibberifrons Schlegel and Pollen (nec S. Muller), Recherches Faun. Madag., 
Oiseaux, p. 160, 1868. 
Anas capensis G. R. Gray, Hand-list Birds, vol. 3, p. 82, 1871 (part). 
Anas gibberifrons, var. bernieri Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, Hist. Nat. des 
Oiseaux de Madagascar, p. 726, pis. 270, 271, 271a, 275, fig. 3, 1876-81. 
Vernacular Names 
English: Bernier’s Duck, Madagascan Teal. 
German: Bernier’s Ente. 
French: Le canard de Bernier, Sarcelle de Madagascar. 
Madagascan: (local) Hake. 
DESCRIPTION 
Adult Male and Female: Very closely resemble the Gray Teal of Australia (Anas gibberifrons) but 
the speculum is velvety black with no green in it. The head is almost exactly as in the Gray Teal 
except that the chin and throat are buff-colored, not white. Upper surface very like the Gray Teal 
but the edges of the feathers are not so light in color. The lower surface is not so strongly mottled 
and the blackish spots are much more obscure. The anterior white wing-bar is very broad and the 
black speculum is formed by the secondaries, which have a narrow white band at their tips. The 
axillars are pure white instead of brown (four specimens in Leyden Museum). Salvadori says the 
upper wing-coverts are more gray than in Anas gibberifrons. 
The iris is brown; the bill reddish brown to red and the feet red to brown (Grandidier; Tring 
Museum). 
I doubt whether the soft parts have been accurately rendered in my plate of this Teal. 
Wing 203 mm.; culmen 38; tarsus 38. 
