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



as Abyssinia, Southern Egypt and to Madeira. It also wanders as far 

 as North-Easteru America. 



Within oiii- limits it is found practicnlly everywhere except in the 

 extreme South and in Coylcn. It is decidedly common in Cachar and 

 Sylhet to my own knowledge, not rare in Goalpara and Kamrup, in 

 w^hich districts I have shot it, and is found throughout the province of 

 Assam, whilst in Burma it has been recorded from N. Tenasserim. It 

 will be noticed that in certain localities one person records this teal os 

 being very plentiful, whilst another, who may be equally good an 

 observer and naturalist, says it is never found. This is due to the fact 

 tliat the Wigeon is most irregular in its visits, and whilst it comes one 

 year in hundreds and even thousands to certain parts, yet these loca- 

 lities may be hunted in vain the following season for a single specimen. 



Notes recorded by various ornithologists and sportsmen would seem 

 to shew tha*. in years of heavy rainfall the Wigeon does not visit India 

 in the same numbers as it does in drier years. 



Thus Reid writes of Oudh : " The Wigeon is by no moans uncommon, 

 though it is, I think, rather erratic, in its wanderings, being much 

 more common in some seasons than in others. During the past cold 

 weather, for instance, when the jhils were much below their average 

 size and many of the smaller ones altogether dry, 1 did not expect to 

 meet with it ; but as a matter of fact, it was much more common than 

 1 had ever known it to be before." 



Again Vidal : " Wigeon in some years are very abundant on the 

 A^ashishti River, congregating in large flocks of five hundred birds or 

 more, but they are not like Common Tesd, widely distributed. In 

 1.S78-79, after the highest rainfall on record, not a Wigeon was to 

 be found in the district ; but in 1879-80 after a year of moderate rain- 

 fall, they reappeared in their usual strength on the Vashishti." 



Davidson notes it as rare in Mysore, but Major Mclnroy says that 

 a fair number may be met with in parts. The only way I can at all 

 account for the Wigeon being more common in drj^ than in wet seasons 

 is because it is very much of a shallow water or bottom feeder. 

 In very wet seasons the lakes, jhils, ponds, etc., all overflow their 

 normal limits, and thus the edges and the shallow water covers ground 

 on which no water weeds grow and on which the natural dry 

 land vegetation has been killed by the water. On the other hand, 



