INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 259 



There is a good plate of Nettion alhigulare in the British Museum Cata- 

 logue, and on the same plate is shown the head of N. gibberifrons, 

 thus giving a comparison between the two birds. 



There is very little on record about this teal, and it is to be hoped 

 that observers will soon add to our knowledge of it. By far the most 

 important note on its habits is that contributed by Mr. A. L. Butler 

 to this journal. Lately as this interesting note has appeared, I feel that 

 there is no apology needed, except to Mr. Butler, for again producing 

 it here, nor would any account of the Andaman Teal be up to date were 

 it omitted : — 



" When I arrived at Port Blair in May, these teal were in good sized 

 flocks, resorting principally, at low tide, to two little rocky islets, up 

 the harbour, known as Bird Island and Oyster Island. I did not go 

 after them at that time myself, not having a boat ; a fair, though not 

 large, number were killed by some of the officers stationed here. I 

 believe eleven was the result of four barrels on one occasion ! As the 

 monsoon commenced and the harbour become rougher, at the beginning 

 of June, these flocks of teal broke up into smaller parties of five or six to 

 a dozen or so, and retired to the creeks and dyke-intersected marshes, a 

 little inland, near Bamboo flat and Port Monatt. Towards the end of 

 June these small parties beg^an to break up into pairs, about this time 1 

 shot several, and in the paired birds I found the testes of the males 

 enlarged, but the ovaries of the females were as yet in ordinary condi- 

 tion. In the ' Game Birds of India ' Mr. Hume mentions a single 

 nest found in August, and I should think that August or the end of 

 July would be the usual time of laying. I am afraid I am not likely to 

 find a nest, as there are so many hundreds of acres of suitable breeding 

 ground, and the birds are comparatively few." 



*' The Oceanic Teal feed a good deal in the paddy fields at night; 

 under cover of darkness, too, a few birds often drop into small tanks at 

 Aberdeen within a few yards of bungalows and buildings. "When ia 

 flocks they are very wild, but in pairs, in the small channels among 

 the marshes, I found them very tame. I have often been able to creep 

 up to the water's edge and watch a pair swimming quietly about within 

 ten yards of me for some time. On one occasion I crane right on to a 

 pair under an overhanging bush, and they only fluttered, like water hens, 

 along the surface for twenty yards or so, then pitched and connnenced 



