white-bodied goose-teal. 163 



The White-bodied Goose-teal. 



Descr. — Top of the head black ; back, scapulars and wings 

 richly glossed with purple and green, the purple prevailing on the 

 back and scapulars, the wing-coverts and base of the quills 

 green; rump blackish in the middle, white at the sides; upper tail- 

 coverts cinereous brown with pale mottlings ; tail blackish brown ; 

 primary quills with a large white patch tipped with black on their 

 terminal half, the white gradually diminishing in extent ; the 

 secondaries only tipped with white ; tertials pure black, glossed 

 green externally, purplish within ; face, back of head, and whole 

 neck and under parts pure white, with a black collar round the 

 lower part of the neck; flanks white with fine zig-zag brown lines; 

 vent and under tail-coverts mottled dusky and white. 



Bill black ; irides crimson ; legs greenish ochry-yellow tinged 

 with black at the breeding season. Length 13 to 14 inches ; 

 wing 6 \ ; tail 2}; bill at front 1 ; tarsus 1 ; mid-toe 1|. Weight 

 9 to 10 ounces. 



The female is duller and more brown, above faintly glossed, 

 the primaries want the white patch, the sides of the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts are pale brown ; the top of the head is dusky, 

 and there is a dark stripe through the eyes ; the neck is mottled 

 with dusky, lines ; the under parts are dirty white, the flanks pale 

 brown, and under tail-coverts whitish. 



This pretty little Goslet (as it may be named) is found over 

 the whole of India, Ceylon, Burmah, and Malayana, in great 

 abundance in many parts, more rarely in the North-western 

 Provinces. It frequents weedy and grassy tanks in moderate or 

 rather large flocks, flies with great rapidity, uttering a peculiar 

 cackling call, and is, when undisturbed,, very familiar and unwary. 

 It breeds generally in holes in old trees, often at some distance 

 from water, occasionally in ruined houses, temples, old chimneys, 

 and the like, laying eight or ten (sometimes, it is stated, as many as 

 fifteen,) small white eggs. The young are clad with copious black 

 down, and are, as a writer inthe Indian Sporting Review observes, liter- 

 ally turned out of the nest by the parent as soon as they are hatched, 

 and led to the neighbouring water. The same writer states, that 

 the ducks alone attend to the duties of incubation, the drakes 



