GREEN PYGMY GOOSE 



NETTAPUS PULCHELLUS (Gould) 



(Plate 10) 



Synonymy 

 Nettapus pulchellus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1841, p. 89. 

 Nettopus pulchellus Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880, p. 505. 



Vernacular Names 

 English: German: 



Green or Australian Pygmy Goose Australische Zwergente 



Green or Australian Goose Teal Aborigines of Australia: 



Little Goose Loon-byte 



DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male (type specimen, 2, 5972, Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.) : An oval white patch 3 cm. long, below, 

 under, and behind eye; above, the head is brown, transversely barred with green on occiput; chin 

 brown; the neck all around dark glossy green with bluish reflections. Back, scapulars and wing- 

 coverts same color; a conspicuous white speculum on secondaries. Lower neck, upper breast, and sides 

 white, with crescentic brown bands, giving a very conspicuous appearance. Lower parts white. 

 Tail black, under tail-coverts black. In another specimen, possibly more mature, there is more white 

 on sides of head, and the chin is white. 



Bill: nail of upper, and whole lower mandible, flesh color; base of lower, and the rest of upper man- 

 dible black. Iris brown; tarsi and feet black. 



Total length 375 mm.; wing, 168; tail 70; tarsus 26 (Mathew, 1914-15). 



Adult Female: Similar in plumage to male, but having crown of the head uniform dark brown, and 

 the entire sides of head and throat white, finely freckled with black (North, 1913). Size as in male. 



Immature Male: The anterior parts of the cheeks and the throat tinged with blackish, while the 

 posterior part of the cheeks and the ear-coverts are covered by a very conspicuous white patch 

 (Salvadori, 1895). 



Young in Down (specimen Tring Museum) : Easily distinguished from the young of the true sur- 

 face-feeding and diving ducks by the presence of a broad white band across the hind-neck back of the 

 occipital head patch, as in the Tree Ducks. There is a white, supraorbital streak and a dark transocular 

 streak which merges behind with the occipital black patch. The rest of the upper side is dark gray 

 to black getting darker on the back and rump. There are white patches on the wing-rudiments but 

 none on the scapular and rump areas. The downy tail is very long, coarsely feathered and peculiar in 

 texture. The lower surface is white. 



Plumages: Meyer and Wiglesworth (1898) remark that there is no valid distinction between the 

 male and female when the former is in winter or immature dress. 



