(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.