Anas crecca Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 126.
Nettion crecca Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1895), 27, 243;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 38.
Nettium crecca Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4,
443, fig. 114 (head); Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 218; Oates,
Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 169.
Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Whitehead); Mindoro
(? Platen). Palaearctic Region, wintering in northern Africa,
in Arabia, Persia, India, Ceylon, Burmah, China and Japan;
accidental in Greenland and eastern United States.
"Adult male.--Head and upper neck chestnut; a glossy green patch on
each side of the head from the eyes backward to upper nape; a narrow
buffy line from the gape upward along the base of the upper mandible
and from thence to the eye, bordering above and below the anterior
part of the green patch; chin black; hind neck, back, and scapulars
with narrow gray and black wavy lines; outer scapulars buff, broadly
edged with black on the outer web; upper tail-coverts black, edged
with buffish brown; on the middle of the neck a collar of whitish
and black cross-lines; breast and abdomen white, the former with
round subapical black spots; sides and flanks waved with narrow black
lines; central under tail-coverts velvet-black, the lateral ones of
a buff-color, with a band of black at the base; upper wing-coverts
lead-gray, the greater row whitish buff, darker toward the inner ones;
wing-speculum on the secondaries velvety black, with a white apical
band on the outer half, glossy green on the inner half; first tertial
velvet-black on the outer web; primaries and tail-feathers grayish
brown, the later with pale edges; under wing-coverts gray, edged with
white, the central ones and the axillars wholly white. Bill nearly
black; iris hazel; legs, toes, and membranes brownish gray. Length,
368; wing, 184; tail, 76; culmen, 40; tarsus, 28.
"Female.--General color of the upper parts dark brown, each feather
with reddish brown edges; upper part of the head darker than the
sides, which are whitish, thickly speckled with black; a black line
behind the eyes; chin and throat whitish; the feathers of the back
and scapulars with two, narrow, transverse, bars of buffy brown;
under parts whitish, with a reddish tinge on the breast, each feather,
except those of the belly, with obscure dark centers; wing as in the
male but somewhat duller.
"Young in first plumage closely resembles the female, but the
wing-coverts have pale edgings, and the dark centers of the feathers
appear also on the belly.
"Males in molting plumage resemble the adult females.
"'Nestling yellowish white on under parts, buff on forehead and throat;
a dark brown streak from the forehead to crown, which with the upper
parts is brown; a dark loral streak, and two other streaks from behind
eye to nape on each side.' (Yarrell.)" (Salvadori.)
Genus DAFILA Stephens, 1824.
This well-marked genus may be recognized by its elongate form, long
neck, and long pointed middle tail-feathers.