(RING-NECKED TEAL.)
+Querquedula torquata+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 129; _iid. P. Z.
S._ 1869, p. 635 (Buenos Ayres), et 1876, p. 389; _Burm. P. Z.
S._ 1872, p. 367 (Paraná).
_Description._--Above earthy brown; head above and neck, which
expands into a half-collar, together with the lesser wing-coverts,
lower back, and tail above, black; scapulars pure chestnut; wings
brownish black, with a large white blotch on the coverts of the
secondaries, which are themselves bronzy green: beneath, sides of
head and throat dirty white streaked with brown; breast tinged with
rosy red and sparingly spotted with black; belly and flanks white,
very narrowly barred with grey; crissum black, with a white blotch
on each side: whole length 14·0 inches, wing 7·2, tail 2·7.
_Female_: brown; superciliaries and stripe on each side of the head
with the throat and sides of the neck white: beneath white, banded
across with brown; wings and tail black; secondaries bronzy green;
wings with a white blotch as in the male; bill reddish; feet brown.
_Hab._ Paraguay and Argentina.
This beautiful Duck, for our first knowledge of which we are indebted to
Azara, is rather scarce in collections. Azara described the two somewhat
dissimilar sexes under different names, the male being his _Pato collar
negro_, and the female his _Pato ceja blanca_.
In the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres the Ring-necked Teal is strictly
migratory, and in the month of October appears in small flocks in the
marshes along the river; but in the interior of the country it is seldom
met with. They are extremely active birds, constantly flying about from
place to place both by day and night; and in the love-season, when they
alight in a pool of water, the males immediately engage in a spirited
combat. While flying they utter a peculiar jarring sound, and
occasionally a quacking note, rapidly repeated and sounding like a
strange laugh; but on the water, especially in the evening, the male
emits a long inflected note, plaintive and exquisitely pure in sound--a
more melodious note it would be difficult to find even among the
songsters.