KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 40. NIO 5. 07 



black. The neck is similar but with still lighter ground colour, which in front be- 

 comes light grey, and on the throat almost greyish white with small elongate brown 

 central spöts to the feathers. The feathers of the chest are dark (blackish) brown 

 (the ludden parts of the feathers lighter) ' with broad, more or less rufous brown mar- 

 gins. The feathers of the breast and belly are dark brown with lighter margins 

 which in the central parts över a more or less wide tract are almost or quite white, 

 but towards the vent buffish grey. The feathers of the back are blackish brown 

 with lighter brown margins, which on the mantle in some specimens are almost dull 

 olive-brown but without any greenish tint, in others light brown or greyish brown. 

 The margins of the scapulars are more rufous brown. The scapulars are longer and 

 more pointed in the males than in the females. The tertials of the males have a 

 central velvety black stripe which is absent in the female. The wing-coverts are 

 imiformly more or less slaty brown. The under wing-coverts and axillaries slaty, 

 the latter and the longer coverts with white margins at their distal parts and more 

 or less powdered with white. The rump and upper tail-coverts are dark brown with 

 somewhat lighter margins to the feathers, but these margins which are broader on 

 the coverts are different in different specimens. In one of the males (killed 31 / 3 ) 

 these margins are very little pronounced, and of a dull olive brown shade, in the 

 other (killed ll / 3 ) they are light greyish brown; the females have these feathers m ost 

 similar to the last mentioned male although perhaps with broader margins. In one 

 of the females the margins are somewhat more rufous brown. The tail-feathers are 

 dark brown with more or less pronounced lighter outer margins. The middle tail- 

 feathers are prolonged about IV2 cm. beyond the others. The length of the wing is 

 in the male 220 — 222 mm., in the female 209 — 211 mm. The length of the tail 

 about 119 — 114 in the male, about 105 in the female. The length of the culmen 

 in the male about 37 — 39 mm., in the female about 34. 



The colour of the bill is in the living bird only black on the culmen and the 

 nail, as the accompanying figure (Pl. II fig. 2 & 3), prepared from a sketch made 

 by Sörling on South Georgia shows. The original was a male teal, shot by Sör- 

 ling in the end of March. The colour of the bill of the female was somewhat, but 

 not much, duller. 



A young feathered, but not yet fledged teal (shot in April) has the same ge- 

 neral colours as the adult. The wings are not yet developed, and the bill is very 

 short only 27 mm. It looks therefore comparatively very high and is goose-like in 

 appearance. 



This little duck which reminds one somewhat about our common .Teal, SÖR- 

 ling says, is quite common in the interiör of the fjords on the northern side of 

 South Georgia. In the summer it is found in numerous flocks in the inner valleys 

 sometimes lying in the grass, sometimes swimming on the water of the small fresh- 

 water lakes. During the winter when ice and snow covers the fresh-water lakes it 



1 The dark pigment of the feathers is thus concentrated to the central and outer parts of the feathers 

 although not forniing snch well .detjned round spöts as in allied species. 



