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Show 1884.] COUNT S A L V A D O R I O N A N A S CAPENSIS. 175 According to Andersson the iris is greenish yellow; the upper mandible purplish grey, except a small yellowish-pink patch below the nostrils, which merges gradually into purplish grey ; the under mandible pinkish ; the legs and toes grey, mixed with brown." Bocage, from Anchieta's notes, says :-Bee rouge avec un espace noir a la base de la machoire recouvrant les narines et contournant le front de deux cotes; pieds rougeatres, les palmures d'une teinte plus foncee, et les ongles noirs ; iris jaune orange." I do not think it possible to confound this Teal with any other species, and indeed I a m not able to mention another to which it is nearly allied. The red bill, with the base and nostrils black, the bright green speculum on the wing, and the head profusely streaked with blackish dots, make it very different from any other species known to me. Still it has been confounded by Schlegel and by G. R. Gray with Anas bernieri (peculiar to Madagascar), from which it may be easily distinguished by the bill, much larger and less compressed, and not entirely reddish, as it is in that species, by the paler colouring of the feathers, by the tail pale grey, instead of darkish brown, by the whiter throat, and by many other different points. As regards the geographical distribution of this African Teal, for a long time it was only known near the Cape of Good Hope ; since it has been found in Namaqua- and Damara-land, and in Mossamedes on the south-western coast of Africa ; and quite recently it has been discovered by the late Marquis Orazio Antinori in the kingdom of Shoa, on the north-eastern part of Africa, about the tenth northern parallel. So that we may expect that this bird will be found in all suitable localities between the southern extremity of Africa and Shoa. The habits of this Teal are like those of the other members of the same genus. Antinori writes that small flights of this Duck live on the very deep lake Haddo ; at first he thought that it did not frequent the other lakes of Shoa, but later he killed a specimen in the very shallow lake Cialalaka. According to Antinori this Teal feeds on vegetable substances and aquatic insects. Andersson writes that though this is a rather scarce Duck in Damara-and Great Namaqua-land, he found it more abundant in the immediate neighbourhood of Walyisch Bay than elsewhere in Damara-land. More complete are the accounts we have from the Cape Colony, where Layard says that this Duck is usually confounded with the " Smee Eendtje " (Querquedula erythrorhyncha), in company with which he has shot it at Beaufort, the Knysna, on the Cape Flats, and at Vogel Vley. At this place he killed one near a nest which contained a single egg; it was probably one of this species, and was of a dirty greenish-white throughout; axis 1'' 10'", diam. 1" 6'". Jules Verreaux told Dr. Pucheran that this species is more common than Anas erythrorhyncha, it remains longer near the Cape, and it is very abundant towards the Orange River, and always to be met with in tanks, having the same habits of the allied species. J. Verreaux found small mollusks and insects in their stomachs. I shall conclude with the remark that this most beautiful Teal has never been brought alive to any of the Zoological Gardens of Europe. |