File:Indian sporting birds (1915) (14770421353).jpg

Identifier: indiansportingbi00finn (find matches)
Title: Indian sporting birds
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Finn, Frank, 1868-1932 Hume, Allan Octavian, 1829-1912 Marshall, Charles Henry Tilson, 1841-
Subjects: Birds -- India Game and game-birds -- India
Publisher: London : Francis Edwards
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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nothing dis-tinctive about the mottled-brown plumage of the female, but thedrake is a most handsomely coloured little bird, with his chestnuthead widely banded with green, the cream and black stripeson his pencilled-grey back, and the thrush-like spotting on thebreast. This teal, though with a proportionately long narrowbill, is a thick-set, plump little bird, weighing from 77 to 12•ounces, with no noticeable distinction in this respect betweenthe sexes. In the drakes summer undress, which he loses later thanis usually the case, so that specimens bearing more or less ofit are usually seen even in their winter quarters here for a monthor two, he is generally like the female, but has the breast plainbrown without speckling, and the markings of the body less welldefined. The drakes note is a whistle, the ducks is a tiny quack ;he shows off to her like the mallard, but with a quick, jerky action. Common teal are just as familiar in the East during the cold * Querqioedula on plate. l§.
Text Appearing After Image:
.,y«^ ^^tK. COMMON OR GREEN-WINGED TEAL 15 weather as they are in Europe, in fact more so ; they are some ofthe commonest of our migratory clucks, and are certainly themost widely diffused, being found practically all over the Empire,even penetrating to the Andamans and Nicobars, though ap-parently not to Southern Tenasserim. They come in early, manyarriving in September, and some occasionally even before Augustis out; but October is, as usual with our migrants, the month forthe main body to arrive in. In the north-west, where they are most abundant, flocks ofthousands may be seen, but two or three dozen is a usual figurefor the flocks commonly met with, and even single birds as wellas pairs often turn up. Any sort of water may hold them, asthey are content with a very small area, but they like plenty ofcover, and lie fairly close, so that they afford frequent shots.They swim and walk fairly well, but do not come on land muchfor a surface-feeding duck; their diving powers are nothing

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