(BRAZILIAN TEAL.)
Anas brasiliensis, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 517 (Paraná, Tucuman). Querquedula brasiliensis, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 129; iid. P. Z. S. 1869, p. 635 (Buenos Ayres), et 1876, p. 390; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 192, et 1878, p. 64 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 273 (Entrerios); Burm. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 368.
Description.—Above brown; head more rufous; lower back, tail, and lesser wing-coverts black; wings brownish black; outer webs of the inner primaries and the secondaries shining bronzy green; broad tips of the outer secondaries white, divided from the green colour by a black band: beneath paler, washed on the breast with rusty red; throat whitish; belly slightly banded with brown; bill blackish; feet red: whole length 15·5 inches, wing 7·0, tail 3·3.
Hab. South America.
This richly coloured Teal, which is widely extended in South America from Guiana down to the Straits of Magellan, is usually met with in pairs near Buenos Ayres, although as many as five or six are sometimes seen together. In habits it is a tree duck, preferring water-courses in the neighbourhood of woods, and is frequently seen perched on horizontal branches. The flight is slow and with the wings very much depressed, as in a duck about to alight on the water; and the beautiful blue, green, and white speculum is thus rendered very conspicuous. The note of the male in the love-season is a long plaintive whistle, singularly pure and sweet in sound, and heard usually in the evening.
It is a rather curious coincidence that the vernacular name of this Teal in La Plata should be Pato Portugues, which means, as things are understood in that region, Brazilian Duck.
[350.] DAFILA SPINICAUDA (Vieill.).
(BROWN PINTAIL.)
Anas spinicauda, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 515 (Paraná). Anas oxyura, Burm. ibid. (Mendoza). Dafila spinicauda, Scl. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 666, pl. xxxviii.; Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 130; iid. P. Z. S. 1868, p. 146 (Buenos Ayres), 1869, p. 157, et 1876, p. 392; Durnford, Ibis, 1878, p. 64 (Buenos Ayres) et p. 401 (Patagonia); White, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 42 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 274 (Entrerios).
Description.—Above brown; feathers black in the centre and margined with brown; head above bright rufous spotted with black; wings brown, with a large speculum of bronzy black, distinctly margined above and below with buff: beneath, throat dirty white, sparingly spotted with black; breast, flanks, and crissum tinged with rufous, the feathers with black centres; belly white, in the lower portion slightly varied with brown; bill black, at the base yellow; feet plumbeous: whole length 19·0 inches, wing 9·7, tail 5·5. Female similar.