Anas acuta Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 126.
Dafila acuta Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1895), 27, 270;
Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 447, fig. 116 (head);
Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 219; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902),
2, 172; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 38.
Luzon (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor). Northern
Hemisphere, breeding in the northern parts; south in winter to
northern Africa, India, Ceylon, China, and Japan and in America
to Panama and Cuba.
"Adult male.--Head and upper neck plain hair-brown, darker on crown,
and faintly glossed on sides of occiput with purple; upper half of
hind neck black, with a white stripe on each side, confluent with the
white of lower neck and breast; lower hind neck grayish brown; back,
sides, and flanks waved with gray and dusky; upper tail-coverts black,
the median broadly edged with gray; longer scapulars velvety black,
edged with whitish; wing-coverts uniform brownish gray, the last row
broadly tipped with cinnamon, producing a distinct bar; primaries
brownish gray, darker toward the tip; speculum varying from dull
metallic green to bronzy purple, tipped with white, and crossed by a
subterminal bar of velvety black; inner quill of the speculum velvety
black with a white band along the inner part of outer web; tertials
gray, marked with a velvety black median stripe; abdomen whitish,
dusted with gray, lower flanks with a buff tinge; under tail-coverts
black, the outer ones white on the outer web; central tail-feathers
long, acuminate, and black, remainder of tail-feathers dusky gray,
edged with whitish. Bill blackish, with the sides dull lead-blue; feet
grayish black; iris dark brown. Length, from 610 to 760; wing, 280;
middle tail-feathers, 184 to 240; culmen, 47 to 55; tarsus, 39 to 47.
"'Adult female.--Above grayish dusky, varied with irregular bars
of yellowish white or pale ochraceous; head and neck whitish buff,
each feather, except on throat, streaked with blackish; lower parts
dingy white, flanks, abdomen, and under tail-coverts streaked with
dusky; wing brown, smaller wing-coverts tipped with whitish; greater
wing-coverts and secondaries tipped with white, forming two white bars
across the wing, but the space between them dull brown, mottled with
black, without any metallic gloss of any kind.' (Seebohm.) Tail brown
with oblique buffish spots or bars. Length, 533 to 597; wing, 244 to
256; middle tail-feathers, 114 to 127; culmen, 46 to 53; tarsus, 42.
"'Young in first plumage closely resembles adult females, but young
males may always be distinguished by having an alar speculum.
"'Males in first nuptial plumage have pale margins to the wing-coverts,
and most of the feathers of the rump are broadly barred, instead of
finely vermiculated, with white.
"'Adult males in molting plumage may be distinguished from adult
females by having an alar speculum, and being richer and darker
in color.
"'Young in down have the same pale spots on the upper parts as those
of the mallard, but the white on the throat and belly is slightly
suffused with gray instead of buff, and in addition to the dark lines
passing through the eye, a second dark line passes from the lores
below the eye to the nape.' (Seebohm.)
"According to some ornithologists, European specimens differ very
appreciably from North American in having a narrower speculum,
but I have failed to find that there is any appreciable
difference." (Salvadori.)
"Found in very large flocks on Manila Bay during January and February
but wild and difficult to kill." (Worcester.)
Genus QUERQUEDULA Oken, 1817.
This genus is very much like Nettion but the bill is broader, and
instead of being of the same width throughout, is wider toward the tip;
the nail also is broader.