Description.—Above deep blackish brown, minutely vermiculated with rufous; head and neck black; narrow terminal band on the secondaries white; beneath dirty white, on the upper breast, flanks, and crissum freckled with rufous; bill blackish, with a basal spot on each side flesh-colour; feet horny brown: whole length 14·5 inches, wing 6·3, tail 2·3. Female similar, but head like the back; cheeks brown, freckled with black, and throat and superciliary stripe whitish.
Hab. Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chili.
This small, obscurely coloured Duck extends from Southern Brazil over the pampas of Buenos Ayres into Chili. Near Buenos Ayres it is scarce. Durnford shot a pair in September 1876, in the reed-beds of Alvear, about twenty miles to the north-west of the city.
[345.] QUERQUEDULA CYANOPTERA (Vieill.).
(BLUE-WINGED TEAL.)
Anas cyanoptera, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 516 (Mendoza, Paraná). Querquedula cyanoptera, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 129; iid. P. Z. S. 1869, p. 160 (Buenos Ayres), et 1876, p. 384; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 191 (Buenos Ayres), et 1878, p. 400 (Patagonia); White, P. Z. S. 1882, p. 625 (Catamarca); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 273 (Pampas). Pterocyanea cyanoptera, Burm. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 368.
Description.—General plumage red; top of head black; middle of back and scapularies streaked with black; lesser wing-coverts blue; wing-speculum green, margined above with white; primary wing-feathers black, secondaries flammulated with white and buff; bill black; feet yellow: whole length 18·0 inches, wing 7·6, tail 3·0. Female: above blackish, feathers margined with whitish: beneath dirty white, variegated with brown; throat white, with blackish freckles.
Hab. North and South America.
This Teal has an exceedingly wide distribution in America, being found from California in the northern continent down to the Straits of Magellan and the Falkland Islands in the south. Its fine, strongly contrasted colours give it a very handsome appearance—the wings being clear grey-blue, the body deep maroon-red, the feet vivid yellow, beak black, and iris gold-colour. On the pampas it is common, and almost invariably seen in pairs at all seasons. Many of the Teals are quarrelsome in disposition; but this species, I think, exceeds them all in pugnacity, and when two pairs come together the males almost invariably begin fighting.