ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL, 167 
ANDAMAN TEAL, 
(Nettium albigulare. Querquedula andamanensts). 
This species has hitherto only been found on South 
Andaman Island, where it is a permanent resident. It has not 
been observed on the North Andaman, the Cocos, or the 
Nicobar Islands. It was supposed by Lord Tweeddale to be 
identical with M. gibberifrons of Java, Timor, Flores, and 
Celebes, but Salvadori has separated the two species. 
“The Andaman Teal is not a common bird, and is 
generally found either in flocks or in pairs frequenting both salt 
water and fresh, sometimes hiding amongst the mangroves in 
creeks during the day, and feeding on freshwater pools or in 
rice fields at night. The nest was found by Captain Wimberley.” 
(Blanford’s Fauna of Brit. India Birds, vol. iv.) 
This Teal was received by the Zoological Society in June, 
1903, and bred during the years 1905 and 1906. 
Those who cannot see the bird in the flesh will find a good 
illustration in the British Museum ‘“ Catalogue of Birds,” vol. 
27, plate ii. 
Mr. Frank Finn, who has had an opportunity of studying 
this bird in captivity, describes it as follows :— 
“This is the largest of the genus, but has proportionately the 
smallest wings; its bill is also short, like that of the Clucking Teal. The 
sexes are alike. The colour is a mottled brown, very dark, almost choco- 
late in fact. The throat, fore-neck, and a ring round the eyes are white, as 
is a patch in front of the wing-bar, which is velvet-black with a longitudinal 
bronze-green streak in the middle, and a narrow lower border of white 
formed by the white edging of the first secondary. 
‘The white on the head shows a tendency to spread, and in one 
Indian Museum specimen, a fine male, extends all over the face ; possibly 
this is a matter of age, as old birds get white at the root of the beak. Young 
birds have no white round the eye. The bill and feet are blue-grey and the 
eyes reddish-brown or red. 
‘‘ Unlike most of the ducks of this section it perches freely, and is 
active both on land and water.”—(‘‘ How to know the Indian Ducks,” p. go.) 
