142 ANSEEES PCECILONETTA 



Description. Adtilt male. — Crown and nape dark brown, 

 separated from the white cheeks arid throat by a very distinct 

 line of demarcation running below the eye ; neck mottled brown 

 and dirty white ; rest of the upper surface Iwown, all the feathers 

 distinctly edged with a pale salmony pink; wings brown like the 

 back, the inner secondaries salmony pink on the outer web, forming 

 a speculum, their bases black and the tips of their coverts pink, thus 

 forming two bands along the upper side of the speculum ; below 

 white, most of the feathers, especially those of the breast, flanks 

 and under tail-coverts with subterminal semicircular spots of ashy- 

 black ; under wing-coverts ashy-black, some of the inner ones and 

 the axillaries banded black and white. 



Tris hazel ; bill pink with a brownish stripe down the centre ; 

 legs dirty grey. 



Length (in flesh) 19; wing 8-5; tail 3-0 ; culinen 1-55; 

 tarsus 1-35. 



The female resembles the male in plumage and dimensions. 



Distribution. — The Eed-bill has a very similar range to the 

 Hottentot Teal, being spread over South and East Africa from 

 Abyssinia to Cape Colony, up to South Angola on the west; it 

 is also found in Madagascar. 



It is, after the Yellow-bill perhaps, the commonest of all the 

 South African Ducks, being met with almost everywhere, and 

 being apparently a resident in most parts of our area. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony — Cape division (S. A. 

 Mus. and Novara Expedition), Port Elizabeth, common (Brown), 

 Grahamstown (Brit. Mus.), King Williams Town, after rain 

 (Trevelyan), Zak Eiver in Praserburg, September, Kuruman, July 

 (Burchell), Orange Eiver, near Upington, January (Bradshaw), near 

 Aliwal North (Whitehead), Woodhouse Kraal, Mafeking division 

 (Bryden); Natal — Conzella, near Durban (Gordge), near Maritzburg 

 (Fitzsimmons), Newcastle district (Butler) ; Orange Eiver Colony 

 — Vredefort Eoad, February (B. Hamilton), Basutoland, very 

 common (Murray) ; Transvaal — Limpopo Eiver (Holub), Potchefs- 

 troom, June, March (Ayres), Boksburg and Krugersdorp (Gil- 

 fillan) ; Bechuanaland — Nocana, July (Fleck), Botletli Eiver 

 (Bryden) ; Ehodesia — Upper Zambesi (Holub), Eamaqueban 

 Eiver, March, November (Gates), near Salisbury common (Mar- 

 shall) ; German South-west Africa, common throughout (Andersson 

 and Fleck) ; Zumbo on the Zambesi, November (Alexander). 



Habits. — The Eed-bill haunts vleis and pans, and also the 



