30 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



where the cover was denser than elsewhere : an hour after light they 

 left the rice-fields, and were theu found swimming about in semi-open 

 pieces of water, but seldom in the large open expanses in the centre 

 of the lake. It was very noticeable that in the rice-fields the birds 

 were constantly seen either singly or in pairs, yet as soon as they left 

 these thev were very seldom found in pairs, and practically never alone 

 but in flocks numbering ten to twenty, sometimes as many as forty. 

 They seem to put on fat quicker than any other duck, or perhaps they 

 feel the exertion of migration less. Of course the Mallard, which 

 miorates often from parts very close to us, arrives fat ; but I have noticed 

 early in the season, when other ducks are very poor, the Gad wall is in 

 quite a plump condition. 



The Gadwall has not yet been found to breed within our limits in 

 spite of Hume's hopes to the contrary. That these are not groundless 

 however is shown by the fact that a duck shot in Cachar contained eggs 

 in the ovaries as large as a big marble ; and surely this bird could not 

 have meant to have migrated far for the purpose of breeding ! This bird 

 was shot in the end of April. Again a pair of birds were reported as 

 havino" been shot in Kashmir in June (date ?), but the person who shot 

 them, finding the ovaries " very attenuated" jumped to the conclusion 

 that the birds could not have been breeding. Is it possible that the 

 esss had been laid ? 



It has been noted as breeding in the British Isles, and also in Norway 

 and Sweden ; indeed it has been found to nest as far north as Iceland, 

 and there is a doubtful record of its having been found in Greenland. 

 Its usnal breeding habitat is however far more south ; throughout 

 Southern Europe from Spain to Russia, not in Northern Africa as far 

 as we yet know, in North-West Asia, in the sub-Arctic regions and in 

 North America, where it has been found during the breeding season as 

 far south as Texas. 



Its nest is much like that of the Mallard or of the Spotted-billed Duck, 

 but, unlike the former, I have never heard or read of its breeding in trees. 



The nest is generally placed at the edge of the water in amongst 

 dense sedge, reeds or bushes, and appears to be carefully concealed as a 

 rule ; it is made of reeds, grass, or any similar material, or sometimes 

 a few twigs, and is more or less lined with down from the birds 

 themselves. 



