515 



■with brown and white; under wing-coverts white, the feathers round the edge of the wing brown. 

 Total length 15 inches, culmen r5, wing 7"2, tail 3 - 0, tarsus 1*1. 



Female in spring plumage. Brown, beautifully mottled with buffy white, with which colour all the feathers 

 of the back are broadly margined ; on the secondaries this tinge is so strong as almost to amount to 

 rust-colour; head plainly tinged with sandy; wing-coverts clear ashy, and the quills glossed with 

 greenish and very plainly edged with white ; under surface of the body pure white, the upper breast 

 tinged with sandy and mottled with dark brown ; under tail-coverts and flanks streaked with brown. 



Male after breeding. Very like the female, generally brown in colour, with paler edgings to the feathers of 

 the upper surface, and the loral spot and eyebrow marked as in the female, but not so plainly indicated ; 

 under surface rusty white, with a very strong tinge of chestnut on the upper part of the chest. In all 

 the above respects it resembles the old female, but may always be distinguished by the bright green bar 

 on the wing and by the lavender wing-coverts, characters which are never seen in the female. 



Obs. A young male, shot on the 10th August, much resembled the old female, but the colours were clearer, 

 the speculum green, and smaller wing-coverts blue-grey, tail with imperfect point. (W. Meves, in epist.) 



Young in down. Above dark brown, with a slight fulvous tinge on the upper part of the back, the fore part 

 of the forehead also tinged with buff; on the middle of the back, and also on each side of the rump, 

 two yellowish-white patches ; sides of the face rusty brown, with a very distinct eyebrow ; through the 

 eye a line of dark brown drawn from the base of the nostril and extending backwards above and below 

 the ear-coverts, nearly enclosing the latter ; throat and fore part of the chest rusty white, rather more 

 inclining to ashy brown on the breast ; rest of the under surface of the body yellowish white. 



The Garganey Teal is widely distributed during summer, being found breeding in more or less 

 profusion over the greater portion of the Palsearctic Begion. In winter it visits India, where it is 

 at this season very common, and appears to extend even into the Indo-Malayan subregion. In 

 the cold weather it is also found in North-eastern Africa. 



The following is Mr. A. G. More's note respecting its breeding in Great Britain: — "The 

 nest has several times been found in Norfolk, where Mr. Stevenson tells me that a few pairs breed 

 annually in the district of the broads on the eastern side of the county. Mr. F. Bond has 

 informed me that the Garganey bred also in the fens of Cambridge and Huntingdon before they 

 were drained." Along the west coast of England it is rare, and is very little commoner in the 

 southern counties. Mr. J. Brooking Bowe says that it is scarce in Devon ; and Mr. Bodd observes 

 that it is " a rare visitor in Cornwall ; a few summers since several were obtained in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Penzance in very beautiful plumage, and preserved." Mr. Stevenson has kindly 

 forwarded us the following note : — " I am happy to say the Garganey still breeds in small 

 numbers on most of the ' Broads,' by which I mean that a pair or two may be seen any summer 

 on most of those waters, and, were they but protected by law, when they return in spring, would 

 be much more plentiful. From the nature of the places they frequent, their nests are but 

 seldom found ; but Professor Newton has eggs from Hoorton Broad, where all such species are 

 strictly preserved. I have also received the old and young procured there in July when flapper- 

 shooting. They make their appearance in Norfolk about the middle of March, and then, too 

 often, in perfect plumage fall victims to the gunner. I never knew of one occurring in winter." 



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