Querquedula circia, the Garganey, which breeds (p. [126]) regularly in East Anglia, ranges through most Palaearctic countries, and extends in winter to North Africa, a great part of the Indian Region, and the Moluccas; it has a brown crown, back, and chest, the last-named with darker crescents, a chocolate neck with white flecks, a white streak above the eye, bluish-grey wing-coverts, green speculum with white margins, and long black and white scapulars. Q. discors, its North American representative, reaching Ecuador and Peru in the cold season, is redder, with lead-coloured head, a white crescent before the eye, and brighter wing-coverts. The brownish females have a dull speculum. Q. versicolor, of America south of Paraguay, and Q. puna, of Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, have plumbeous wing-coverts; Q. cyanoptera, of western and southern South America, has the head and lower surface chestnut.
The flightless Nesonetta aucklandica, of the Auckland group, hardly differs in colour from Elasmonetta chlorotis, of the New Zealand area, which is brown waved with black and rufous above, chestnut and reddish with black spots below, the speculum being green and black, the gorget whitish. The female is rufous brown.
Dafila acuta, the Pintail or Sea-Pheasant of the northern regions generally, reaching North Africa, Ceylon, the Sandwich Islands, Panama, and elsewhere in winter, has a brown head and nape, a white line down each side of the neck, grey upper parts vermiculated with dusky, long black scapulars and rectrices mostly edged with white, a purple-green speculum margined in turn with black and white, a cinnamon bar on the wing-coverts, and a white breast. The female is greyish with brown speculum and ochraceous barring above, the markings being oblique on the tail. It now breeds in Scotland. D. eatoni, of Kerguelen Island and the Crozets, has a grey breast; D. spinicauda, ranging from Peru and South Brazil to Patagonia and the Falklands, has a rufous head and blackish speculum, the sexes being nearly alike, as in the next genus. Poecilonetta bahamensis of the Bahamas, Antilles, and South America, P. galapagensis of the Galapagos, and P. erythrorhyncha of South and East Africa with Madagascar, are somewhat similar birds, having reddish plumage spotted with black, whitish cheeks and throat. In the first two the tail is buff, in the third the bill is chiefly pink, the speculum in all being much as in Dafila.
Nettion crecca, the Teal, extending from Britain over most of Europe and temperate Asia, and nesting even in the Azores and Kuril Islands, winters in North Africa, India, Ceylon, Siam, China, and Japan, and wanders to North America. The head is chestnut with a green eye-patch enclosed by a buffish line, the upper parts are vermiculated with black and white, the speculum is black, green, and purple with a whitish border, the chest is buff with black spots, the under parts are white. N. carolinense of North America, which strays to Europe–including Britain, has a white crescent on each side of the breast. N. formosum of East Siberia, met with in winter in China, and accidentally in India, Italy, and France, has the head varied with black, green, buff, and white, a bluish wash on the back and chest, a speculum of buff, green, and white. In these three species the female is mottled with brown and rufous, and has a duller speculum. N. castaneum of Australia and New Zealand, recorded from Celebes and Java, the doubtful N. gibberifrons of the Malay Archipelago, N. albigulare of the Andamans, N. bernieri of Madagascar, N. capense of South and East Africa, N. flavirostre of America south of Southern Brazil and Chili, N. andium of Ecuador and Venezuela, N. georgicum of South Georgia, N. punctatum of South and East Africa with Madagascar, N. brasiliense of South America generally, and N. torquatum of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, complete the genus. Teal are fresh-water Ducks, feeding chiefly at night on water-plants, seeds, worms, and insects; they are rather silent, and have not the rattling spring-note of the Garganey. The nest is in both cases usually placed at some distance from water in grass, rushes, or heather, the eight to ten eggs being greenish in the Teal and cream-coloured in the Garganey.
Mareca penelope, the Wigeon, which breeds in Scotland, and ranges across North Europe and Asia to Alaska, occurring in winter as far south as Madeira, Abyssinia, Borneo, or even Polynesia, and occasionally on the American coasts, has a rufous head with buff crown, blackish throat and quill-feathers, white upper parts vermiculated with black, white wing-coverts and lower surface, and a green speculum with a black edge. The female is mottled with brown and rufous above, and has a grey-green speculum, and buffish lower parts. This species, which has a whistling cry, whence it is termed "Whew," feeds chiefly by day on grass-wrack and the like when frequenting the mud-flats in winter; the nest is among dry heather or rushes, and contains from seven to ten greenish-buff eggs. M. americana, of North America generally, has a whitish head with black spots, which cover the crown in the female only. M. sibilatrix, reaching from Chili and Paraguay to Patagonia and the Falklands, is chiefly black and white with blue-green nape and black speculum.
Chaulelasmus streperus, the Gadwall, which breeds in East Anglia and South Spain, and is apparently spreading thence, occurs in the subarctic regions of both Worlds, and migrates to Shoa, India, China, Mexico, and Jamaica. C. couesi of the Fanning group may be distinct. The head and upper neck are light brown with dusky spots; the back is blackish with grey markings, the rump black; the lower parts are white with black crescents on the breast; the wing-coverts grey, chestnut, and black. The female is dark brown varied with rufous. The speculum is white. The habits are as in most fresh-water Ducks, the eggs being buff.
Eunetta falcata of East Asia and Japan is a fine bird with chestnut crown, bronzy-purple cheeks, green occipital crest, white neck ringed with green, grey and black upper parts, and lower surface waved with black and white. The white-margined speculum is green, the long thin sickle-shaped inner secondaries are black and white, and a patch on each side of the tail is buff. Both upper and under tail-coverts exceed the rectrices. The female resembles that of the Gadwall, but has a black speculum.
Anas boscas, the Mallard or Wild Duck, ranges from about the Arctic Circle to the Azores, North Africa, Cashmere, and the United States, being found southward in winter to India and Panama. The head is green with a white collar, the upper parts are grey and brown, the rump is black, the speculum purple with margins of black and white, the breast chestnut, the four curly central rectrices being black. The female is brown and buff with a green speculum. In the habits there is little that is peculiar, but the eggs are greenish. The coloration in the remaining species is usually dusky, nor do the sexes differ greatly. A. wyvilliana inhabits the Hawaiian, and A. laysanensis the Laysan Islands; A. melleri Madagascar; A. obscura, with its two local forms A. fulvigula and A. maculosa, Eastern North America; A. diazi and A. aberti Mexico; A. luzonica the Philippines; A. superciliosa the Malay Archipelago and Australian Region; A. poccilorhyncha, with red, yellow, and black bill, India, Ceylon, and Burma; A. zonorhyncha, where the bill is yellow and black and the feet reddish, Eastern Asia; A. undulata and A. sparsa, also with yellow and black bill, but black and orange feet respectively, South and East Africa; A. specularis, Chili and Patagonia; and A. cristata, with a pendent nuchal crest, America from Peru southwards.
Fig. 34.–Sheld-Drake. Tadorna cornuta. × ⅐.