. Birds. Birds. DBNBBOOICNA. 431 and rump blackish; smaller and median wing-coverts chestnut, areater coverts and quills black; upper tail-coverts chestnut; tail dark brown; lower parts light ferruginous, becoming pale yellowish brown on the upper breast, and whitish on the vent and lower tail-coverts; flanks light brown, the long feathers with broad whitish shaft-stripes. Younger birds have the underparts throughout very light brown. Bill, legs, and feet brownish blue, the nail of the bill nearly black ; iris brown ; eyelids bright yellow {Oates). Length 17 ; tail 2 ; wing 7-5 : tarsus 1-75 ;
. Birds. Birds. DBNBBOOICNA. 431 and rump blackish; smaller and median wing-coverts chestnut, areater coverts and quills black; upper tail-coverts chestnut; tail dark brown; lower parts light ferruginous, becoming pale yellowish brown on the upper breast, and whitish on the vent and lower tail-coverts; flanks light brown, the long feathers with broad whitish shaft-stripes. Younger birds have the underparts throughout very light brown. Bill, legs, and feet brownish blue, the nail of the bill nearly black ; iris brown ; eyelids bright yellow {Oates). Length 17 ; tail 2 ; wing 7-5 : tarsus 1-75 ; bill from gape 1" Fig. 109.— Kb!)Ao( ^. Distrihution. A resident almost throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma in suitable localities; also in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Malay Peninsula, Siam, Cochin, Southern China, Sumatra, Borneo, and Java. This Duck is very rare or wanting in the Hima- layas and the Panjab; it is of course absent from the desert region, and in many parts of the country it is only found in the rains generally, because the ponds and marshes are dry at other times. It does, however, move about considerably at different seasons. Habits, SfC. This common and familiar bird is chiefly found about weU wooded and weedy ponds and marshes. It is not •generally seen on rivers, nor on large open pieces of water, and it delights in trees, on which it often perches and roosts, and mostly makes its nest. It keeps in flocks, sometimes large, during the winter and spring, and these flocks are well known to duck- shooters in India, for they fly round and round rather slowly, uttering their peculiar whistling call, long after all other ducks and teal, except the Cotton Teal, have deserted the water. The "Whistling Teal breeds in most parts of India and Burma in July and August: it either makes a nest of sticks in a tree, occupies an old nest of a crow, heron, or cormorant, or builds in grass or thorny scrub near the water's edge. In Ceylon the
Size: 2335px × 1070px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthoroate, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbirds
