ANAS ACUTA. 107 T 



the feathers with narrow pale margins, the central pair pointed and not ^ an inch longer than the adjacent. In 

 this specimen the primaries are only half-grown, although the rest of the plumage is perfect. 



Obs. This dress is proved, by keeping the birds in confinement, to be worn until the end of September, when another 

 equally rapid moult takes place, and by the end of November the full winter and spring plumage has been put on. 

 The wing-coverts, primaries, secondaries, and tail-feathers, with the exception of the two centre pairs, are not 

 moulted ; but the scapulars, tertials, and above-mentioned tail-feathers are, while the remaining tail-feathers 

 would seem to become paler and assume white edges. Naumann, who was a very accurate observer, states that only 

 the centre pair of tail-feathers are moulted ; but I find that the adjacent pair, which are much pointed and exceed 

 the rest in the handsome dress, are not so in the summer specimen above described. 



Adult female. (Petchora, Hakodadi, Wisconsin) "Wing 9-5 to 10"0 inches ; tail 4 - 5 to 4-8 ; tarsus 1/5 to 1/7 ; middle 

 toe 1-5 to 1-8, claw 0-9 ; bill to gape 2-2 to 2-3. (Tarkand) " Length 21-75 ; wing 10, expanse 28-25 ; tail 4-8 ; 

 tarsus 1-5; bill from gape 2-35 : weight 1 lb. 8-5 oz." (Scully.) 



" Bill blacker than in the male ; iris in very old birds brownish yellow." {Naumann.') 



" Bill black above, slate-colour below. Iris dark muddy brown ; legs and feet slaty green ; webs dusky, claws black." 

 (Scully, March.) 



(Petchora, 24th July.) Pace, throat, and neck whitish buff, with dark shaft-stripes ; head and down the hind neck 

 dark brown, the feathers edged with tawny on the head, and greyish on the hind neck ; lower hind neck, scapulars, 

 back, and upper tail-coverts brownish black, the feathers with margins and crescentic and angular bars of white : 

 the markings of the scapulars, which are blacker than the back, consist of longitudinal streaks of white, tinged 

 with buff ; wings brown, the covert-feathers narrowly margined with greyish white, the greater coverts with 

 sharply-defined tips of pure white ; the secondaries with broad white tips, surmounted by a black edge on the 

 outer webs of the feathers ; tail blackish brown, crossed with wavy angular bars, and marked with longitudinal 

 streaks of white tinged with buff ; beneath whitish, the centres of the feathers brown and concealed in parts ; 

 flanks brown, with crescentic marks and margins of white; under tail-coverts whitish, streaked with black; 

 axillaries white, with central streaks of dark brown. 



The Hakodadi specimen is not so dark above, and the white markings are not so broad. 



Young in doivn (Petchora river). Above very dark brown ; blackish on the head, narrowing at the base of the bill 

 into a stripe between whitish eye-stripes ; lores dark brown, continued as a dark stripe behind the eye, beneath 

 which there is another whitish streak ; a broad whitish band down the sides of the back, and another crossing the 

 wing ; beneath whitish, with a dark streak along the face, and the chest tinged with fulvous ; bill blackish, the 

 nail yellowish. 



Young males, according to Naumann, assume the mature winter dress in the first year a month later than old birds ; 

 and young females, according to the same authority, put on the adult plumage about the same time, and can be 

 distinguished up to the following spring by their darker bill. A female (March) from Wisconsin, America, has 

 the markings of the scapulars and upper tail-coverts and tail rufescent buff, which is apparently the result of 

 immaturity. 



Distribution.— This beautiful Duck visits the north of Ceylon during the months of November till March, 

 but is said not to be so numerous as the Garganey or Common Teal. There are specimens of Layard's collecting 

 in the Poole collection, and he states that it used to be occasionally shot on the Jaffna estuary by native duck- 

 shooters. It occurs plentifully every season in Delft, and on the large lagoons at Palverainkadoo and Manaar, 

 and has been met with by Mr. G. Simpson, of the Indian Telegraph Department, and Mr. G. Temple, C.C.S., 

 in the Mullaittivu district. 



Though perhaps not so widely spread as some of its allies in India, the Pintail is nevertheless very 

 abundant in the cold season, arriving, according to Captain Butler, in the Guzerat district as early as the 

 12th October, and leaving again about the 10th April. It is common in Cutch, Kattiawar, and Sindh, as well 

 as in Guzerat, being found more on lakes and jheels than rivers. It is found commonly in Cashmere on the 

 lakes of that State, and also in Oudh and Kumaon, and is very common in the Nepal valley, according to 



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