WILD FOWL 
at the base formed by the black tips of the shorter feathers; wing -coverts, 
primary quills and long inner secondary quills dark ashy-grey; outer 
webs of the outer secondaries black, tipped with white, the median ones 
green, forming a black and green speculum bordered externally with 
white and internally with white, tinged with rufous; outer under wing- 
coverts grey, edged with white; axillaries pure white. Iris hazel; bill 
black; legs, toes and membranes brownish -grey. Total length about 
14 5 inches; bill 1*5 inch; wing 7 2 inches; tail 2 7 inches; tarsus 
1 2 inch. 
Adult male in eclipse~plumage. — Very similar to the female. 
Adult female. — General colour above brownish -black, the feathers with 
paler margins and rufous -buff bars; top of the head blackish, streaked 
with rufous-buff; sides of the head and neck whitish, thickly spotted 
with brown, a line of dusky feathers behind the eye; chin and throat 
whitish; underparts whitish, tinged with rufous on the chest and mottled 
on the breast and sides with dusky middles; under tail -coverts white, 
spotted with brownish -black; wings and tail like those of the male. Total 
length 13 '5 inches; bill 14 inch; wing 7 1 inches; tail 2 '5 inches; 
tarsus 1 1 inch. 
General distribution. — The teal, the smallest of our British ducks, is 
widely distributed over Europe and Asia, breeding plentifully over the 
more northern parts of its range in the PalaBarctic region, including Ice- 
land and the Faeroes, up to about 70° N. latitude, and in gradually decreas- 
ing numbers southward to the Mediterranean, and even in the Azores, 
where it has been found nesting about the large lakes in San Miguel. 
In Asia it likewise nests in great numbers north of the Arctic Circle, 
and in diminishing numbers in Turkestan, Mongolia and the valley of 
the Amur. In winter it is abundant over the Continent wherever open 
water is to be found; also North Africa, some extending as far south as 
Madeira and the Canary Islands, as well as the highlands of Abyssinia. 
Eastward it ranges to Persia, Sokotra, India, Ceylon, Burma, China and 
Japan. In North America it has been procured in Alaska in summer, and 
may possibly breed there, while to the east coast and to Greenland it is 
an occasional straggler. 
Distribution in the British Isles. — In the British Isles it is resident, and 
breeds from the Shetlands, Orkneys and Outer Hebrides southwards, 
being most plentiful in the north, fairly common in the north and east of 
England and in Wales, and least numerous in the midland and southern 
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