ANAS SPARSA.— Smith. 
Aves. — Plate XCVII. (Male.) 
A. brunneo-rubra, plumis subalbo-marginatis ; pennis scapularibus remigibusque internis albo-maculatis ; 
rostro superne cEGruleo-griseo, medio versus basin ungueque nigris; pedibus fiavis. 
Longitudo e rostri apice ad basin caudee, 17 unc. 3 lin . ; caudse, 4 unc. 9 lin. 
Anas Sparsa, Smith, Ey ton's Monagrapli on Anatidse, p. 142, Lond. 1838. 
Colour. — Head, neck, breast, belly, and vent dull brownish red, the 
feathers of the top of the head, upper part of neck, breast, belly, and vent 
narrowly edged with dirty white ; those of the sides of the head and neck, 
and of the upper part of the throat, broadly edged with rusty white, and from 
the light edges being more exposed to view than the brown, the colour of 
these parts is comparatively light. Under tail coverts tipped with rusty 
white and broadly barred with pure white ; interscapulars, back, rump, upper 
tail coverts, shoulder coverts, primary and secondary quill coverts, scapulars, 
and tertiary quill feathers umber-brown, the two latter tinted with brassy 
green. The interscapulars are narrowly margined with rusty white, the 
shoulder coverts, obscurely, with grayish white, the upper tail coverts are 
sparingly blotched or partially barred with rufous, and the scapulars and ter- 
tiary quill feathers are variegated with a few rufous or pure white bars, and 
as portions of these are always exposed to view, there appears on the sides 
of the back a sprinkling of irregular white spots. The tips of the secondary 
quill coverts are velvet black, and each of these feathers behind the black has 
a broad pure white bar. The base of the outer vane of secondary quill 
feathers and their inner vanes brown, their tips white, and behind the white 
a broad bar of velvet black, the rest of the outer vanes deep shining duck- 
green ; the outer vane of the outermost tertiary quill feather is also velvet- 
black, so that the two extremes and the inner side of the wing-speculum 
are bounded by black. Primary quill and tail feather brownish red, the 
latter narrowly tipped with sienna-yellow, and their outer vanes partially 
barred with pale buff-orange. Bill,— the centre portion of the upper man- 
dible from its base to near the nail, the latter, and a spot below each nostril, 
black or deep liver-brown, edges of nostrils bluish-white ; the other parts of 
the mandible bluish-grey. Legs and toes reddish-yellow, the webs the same, 
and each tinted midway between the toes with dirty greyish-black ; claws 
brownish-red. Eyes dark brown. 
