122 THE LARGER WHISTLING TEAL.
Female.—Length, 19-5 ; expanse, 360; wing, 875 ; tail from
vent, 3'0 ; tarsus, 23 ; bill from gape, 2-35 ; weight, lib. 10 ozs.
The legs and feet pale leaden lavedner; webs dusky; bill
dusky leaden, paler at base ; irides brown. _
The bills, legs, and feet vary a good deal in shade in both
sexes; in some they are more dusky ; in others markedly paler
and bluer.
THE PLATE is on the whole fair, but the rufous portions are
throughout too orange, and should be more of a dull chestnut
on the belly, and of a warm brown elsewhere. There is never
the faintest trace of the black lunules, that the artist has
indicated on the sides of the breast. Further I regret to
notice that here too there has been a mistake in the drawing of
the legs.
BESIDES the two species already referred to, both of which
as will have been seen, have a very wide distribution, other
members of this genus occur in various parts of the world.
First, the species commonly known as D. vagans of Eyton,
but which is the species [vide S. F., VI., 488], figured by
Horsfield under Cuvier's M.S.S. name arcuata, which name has
precedence, from Java, the Philippines, Celebes, Timor, and
throughout the Archipelago to Australia where it occurs at any
rate as far south as Sydney. D. eytoni from Australia, D. guttata,
Miillcr, from Celebes, Bouru, Gillolo, Sic, D. viduata widely
distributed in Africa and South America, D. autumnalis of
America, from Demcrara to Texas, and D. atborea from the West
Indies. Very possibly there is another African species, and one
or two others from elsewhere. The genus is a " tropicopolitan"
one, though its range extends here and there a little north and
south of the Tropics.