Genus— Q UEEQUEDULA. 
Queequedula Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., 
Vol. XII., pt. II., p. 142, 1824 . . . . Type Q. querquedula. 
Also spelt — 
Quesquedida Brandt, in Tchihatcheff’s Voy. Sci. Altai Orient, p. 446, 1845. 
Cyanopterus Eyton, Monogr. Anatidse, p. 38, 1838 
(Not Cyanopterus 1835) .. .. .. .. Type Q. querquedula. 
Pterocyanea Bonaparte, Icon. Faun. Ital. Ucc. Introd., 
p. 17, 1841 . . . . . . . . . , . . Type Q. querquedula. 
Small Anatine birds agreeing well in structural characters with Anas but 
smaller, and the male differently coloured. The bill agrees in structure with 
that of Anas, and is longer than the metatarsus or middle toe. The wing 
has the first primary longest, in Anas the second is slightly the longest. The 
tail is short. The metatarsus has a single row of scutes on the front and is 
shorter than the middle toe or culmen. The middle toe is longer than the 
metatarsus but is shorter than the culmen. The hind toe is smaU and 
narrowly lobed. 
This genus, admitted in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, 
Vol. XXVII., can scarcely be differentiated from Nettion. The only 
character given is “ Upper wing-coverts blue or bluish-grey ” against “ Upper 
wing-coverts not blue, but of a more or less dark grey.” 
Examination of specimens show that the bill in Querquedula is 
comparatively broader and deeper than in Nettion, and the toes a little 
longer. 
The two genera are distinguished by American Ornithologists, but 
the distinction is so slight that Baird, Brewer and Ridgway {Water Birds 
North Amer., Vol. I., p. 487, '1884) wrote: “Small, like Nettion, but bill 
longer (longer than the head), broader, less depressed, the culmen decidedly 
convex anteriorly, lesser wing-coverts pale dull blue : nape without a 
tuft.” If the two genera be united, which seems inevitable to me, the 
name here used must be preserved as it is the oldest. 
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