INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 463 



The flight of this species, though Teal-hke, is less rapid and flexible 

 (if I may coin an expression to represent the extreme facility 

 with which that species turns and twists in the air) than that of 

 the Common Teal. It more nearly resembles that of the Garganey, 

 but is less powerful and less rapid even than that of this latter species. 

 There is something of the Gadwall in it, but it wants the ease of this. 

 It flies much lower too, and as already mentioned much more readily 

 resettles after being disturbed. I have hardly ever seen them swim- 

 ming in the open, and in the rushes they make of course slow progress. 

 When wounded they dive, but for no great distance, and then persist- 

 ently hold on under water in any clump of rush or weed, with only 

 their bills above water. I have never seen them on land in a wild state, 

 but some captured birds, whose wings had been clipped, walked very 

 lightly and easily ; and though they had been but a few days in con- 

 finement, they were very tame and could, I should imagine, be easily 

 domesticated. 



" In Spain they are described as very wary, and there they seem to 

 frequent open water ; here they avoid this latter as a rule, and are, I 

 should say, amongst the tamer of our ducks. 



" Their food is very varied here. Favier says that in Tangiers they 

 feed on winged insects ; in Sindh the major portion of their food 

 consist of leaves, shoots, rootlets, corns and seeds of aquatic plants, 

 intermingled with M'orms, fresh-water shells, insects of all kinds, and 

 their larvse. I believe I found a small frog in the stomach of one, 

 but it is not noted on the tickets of any of the specimens now in the 

 Museum, and I cannot be quite sure." 



Its voice has been variously described as a whistling croak, a low 

 croaking whistle, a rather hoarse quack, and a quack like that of the 

 domestic duck but very harsh and abrupt. It is probable that these 

 descriptions apply to two notes, and that this duck, like some others, 

 has two distinct calls, one more or less of a whistle, the other somewhat 

 of the nature of a quack. 



Its food Is practically omnivorous, and as an article of diet itself it 

 is not first class. 



Mr. B. Alexander found it breeding plentifully in the Cape Verd 

 Islands, and it appears to breed on the greater portions of its habitat 

 round the Mediterranean. Although breeding in latitudes so far sotith, 



