THE COMMON TEAL. 213 
The eggs are moderately broad ovals, smooth and with a slight 
gloss, of a creamy buff or ivory yellow colour, and varied 
(the few I have measured) from 1°68 to 1°83 in length, and 
from 1°29 to 1‘4 in breadth. 
THERE IS not much difference in the sizes of the sexes 
in this species. The following is a résumé of a large number 
of measurements:— 
Males—Length, 1415 to 15°85; expanse, 23°0 to 25°25; 
wine, 72 to $O>5. tail from -vent, 370: to: 3°60; tarsus, 11° to 
1°3; bill from gape, 1°65 to 1°8; weight, 10°5 ozs. to 15 ozs, 
Females—Length, 13°5 to 14°9; expanse, 22°5 to 25°0; 
mine O75 to 74. tail irom vent, 2°9'to 3°5 ; tarsus, 10 to 1:2; 
bill from gape, 1°5 to 1°77; weight, 7°7 ozs. to 12'0 ozs. 
In the adult male the bill is black or blackish, brownish on 
rami of lower mandible; in young males and females the 
lower mandible, though sometimes only brown, commonly varies 
from brownish yellow to dull orange, and is generally brownish 
at tip. The upper mandible also in females is usually rather 
paler coloured than that of the male, and is often tinged with 
green or plumbeous green. 
The irides are brown, varying in shade from light hazel to 
almost black. 
The legs and feet are commonly grey, with a faint olive 
tinge (the webs and claws in all cases dusky,) but they vary 
in shade a little, and at times are bluish grey with a brown 
shade, and at others distinctly dark slatey grey, sepia grey, 
brown, greyish brown, olive, greenish olive, dirty greenish 
plumbeous, or even plumbeous. 
THE PLATE is, on the whole, very satisfactory, but the species 
is a very variable one. Inthe first place, to begin with the 
male, the markings or lines on the side of the head, coloured 
buff in our plate, are often pure white. Sometimes they are 
quite broad and conspicuous, at others narrow ; the line under 
the green patch is occasionally almost entirely wanting. Some- 
times that above it is barely traceable. Generally the base of 
the back of the neck and upper back is much greyer, and the 
vermicellations finer than in our plate. Generally, I think, the 
speculum is greener and less blue. 
The ground of the entire under surface varies from pure 
white to a dark ferruginous. At times the whole breast and 
upper abdomen are densely spotted ; in some.specimens they 
are absolutely spotless. The rufous on the sides of the head 
varies from the colour figured by us to a dusky chestnut. 
The females, as a rule, are greyer and less rufescent than in 
the plate, and, like the males, they vary below from pure white 
to ferruginous fulvous, 
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