INDIAN DCCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 27 



When out snipe shooting in that montli on extensive jheels and 

 similar pieces of water, a few Gadwall may still be put up ; but nearly 

 all that are seen will be hurriedly making their way north. 



Surgeon-Captain Woods says that even in Manipur they leave about 

 the end of Maroh. 



An interesting fact noted by this close observer is that many, perhaps 

 the majority, of the ducks pair off before leaving their winter quarters. 

 He says most of them pair in March, but that he has noticed some 

 pairing as early as February. No one seems ever to have noticed these 

 birds arriving at their breeding-groimds in pairs, so it is to be presumed 

 that, their preliminary courtship completed, the pairs re-assemble in 

 flocks which remain together until they reach their nesting haunts. 



The Gadwall ranks very high up in the table of duck precedence. 

 There are so many good points about it which atti-act favourable notice. 

 As an article of diet few ducks are better. Some people would give the 

 prize in this respect to the Mallard, others perhaps to the Pintail, but 

 take the Gadwall all round it is hard to beat on the table. Personally 

 I'have never known the duck to have a fishy or other unpleasant flavour, 

 nor have I met any Bengal sportsman who has charged it with this 

 crime. But the northern presidencies have held men sometimes who have 

 complained of this flavour when they first arrive. They ought to be all 

 right, as they are almost entirely vegetable feeders, subsisting much on 

 wild and cultivated rice, water weeds, etc., and seldom varying the diet 

 with animal food. A drake shot in Silchar was found to contain a mass 

 of small white worms in addition to some water berries and half ripe rice, 

 but this in no way affected the flesh. 



Before cooking however he has to be shot, and though not as a 

 rule a very shy ])ird, yet he is quite wide awake enough to make the get- 

 ting within shot of him an int-eresting, if not difficult, job. Where too 

 he has been much shot at all, one's ingenuity and perseverance will be 

 required before the game bag can be made to assume the bulgy appear 

 ance it ought. Then, when you have got within shot, the Gadwall 

 proves a thoroughly sporting bird : he is quick off the water, rising 

 rather straight up into the air, and getting very soon well under way, 

 and in full flight the Gadwall is even faster than the Mallard and, as 

 many writers have observed, reminds one much of teal ia the manner 

 of flying and the swish-swish of the wings as the flock hurtles over- 



