THE OCEANIC TEAL. 245 
bill at front, 1°3 to 1'4; from gape, 1°65 to 1°75; wings, when 
closed, reach to within from 1 to 1°75 of end of tail; weight, 
TZ, OZS. 
Legs and feet greenish blue to plumbeous; webs usually 
darker; claws horny; bill greenish blue, plumbeous or 
plumbeous blue ; nail black ; in some the lower mandible tinged 
with, in one the terminal two-third of this, pink ; irides reddish 
brown to deep brownish red. 
THE PLATE very fairly represents the specimens figured, 
but this species is rather variable. In old adults the eye is 
always set in a white ring, broader below, narrower above the 
eye, and the portion of the lores that abuts on the upper 
mandible is also white. It is quite the exception, however, 
for a white line to stretch, as shown in the plate, through the 
eye; but it did so in this particular specimen, a very fine male. 
In the young birds the white eye ring and the white lore 
patch, or line, are both quite wanting. Old males (and perhaps 
females, though it is less marked in these) have a very decided 
and full, though short, occipital crest. The lower surfaces of old 
birds have generally a sort of vinous fawny tinge, presenting 
a somewhat paler and greyer appearance than in the specimen 
figured. 
The arrangement of the colours in the wing is so peculiar 
that I had better describe it in detail. The whole of the earlier 
secondary greater coverts, and the ends of the later ones, a 
broad margin to the outer web of the first secondary, and 
usually a narrow margin to the second, and a more or less broad 
tipping to all but about the last three secondaries, white, more 
or less tinged with rufous buff; the rest of the outer webs 
of the secondaries velvet black with a brilliant longitudinal 
metallic green band covering the greater part of the visible 
portions of one, two or three of them—from the seventh to 
the ninth—smaller and more coppery in the female. 
THIS SPECIES has generally, hitherto, been classed as a Wigeon, 
but the bill is not short enough for that genus, and it is not 
narrowed towards the tip, but rather broadened as in the 
eal: 
Teal occur almost throughout the world. America has 
at least ten species peculiar to it—Africa three that might pro- 
perly be thus classed. Those found in Europe and Asia 
have been already discussed. Only in Oceana, Australia, and 
New Zealand the genus seems to be slenderly represented. 
CEETSD> 
