458 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



terously catch flies which pass m its way over the water. Shrimps 

 among other things^, have been found in its stomach on dissection." 



It is a bad swimmer and a worse diver and once shot takes little 

 trouble to bring to hand, if only wounded. It flies however very well 

 and strongly and in this respect it holds its own with teal and other 

 swift ducks, though it is slow to rise, getting up heavily and awkwardly 

 off the water and taking time to get up its speed. 



They are very sociable birds and consort with Teal, Gadwall and 

 other ducks. As a rule they are very tame and can be easily approach- 

 ed if the least caution is taken and they have the reputation of 

 allowing repeated shots to be fired at them before a flock will leave the 

 piece of water they are frequenting. 



Blanford remarks that it never appears to feed like other ducks 

 with its head and breast immersed and its tail sticking up vertically. 



It is said to walk well, with a carriage similar to that of the Gadwall 

 and Hume says it can even run if sufl&cient inducement be held out for 

 it to do so. 



Newton remarks on a peculiarity of this duck of " swimming round 

 in circles with its bill in the water above the spot where Pochards are 

 diving and feeding beneath and sifting out the substances that float up 

 when disturbed by the operation of the diving ducks." 



As regards their breeding in Indian limits all I can find is Layard's 

 record noted by Legge : " Layard not only discovered it one year near 

 Jaffna, but found it breeding there at the Chawagacherry lagoon in 

 March. He then met with a female with twelve young ones, most of 

 which he captured, and in the month of November he obtained speci- 

 mens from native shooters." 



This of course was an abnormal breeding incident in every way, time 

 as well as locality, and it is very hard to give any reason for such a 

 queer occurrence. 



They breed throughout their Northern habitat, Asia, America, Europe 

 and also in parts of Northern Africa. They are said to breed very 

 extensively in Abyssinia and also in Algeria. In Asia it breeds i^a 

 Turkistan, Northern Persia, and in the whole of its Northern Asiatic 

 range. 



In Europe it breeds over the greater part of the continent though 

 absent in some countries and present in others quite as far South. 



