234 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Family ANATID^:. Genus Anas. 



Sub-family ANATINM. 



GARGANEY. 



Anas circia, Linnmis, 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, May. 



British breeding area : The Garganey is yet 

 another of our rarest and most local birds, and is 

 perhaps only known with certainty to breed in the 

 Broad districts of Norfolk and Suffolk. It may possibly 

 do so in some of the more southern English counties, 

 but the information is as yet meagre and indefinite. 



Breeding habits : The Garganey is a summer 

 migrant to the British Islands, reaching its breeding- 

 grounds in East Anglia towards the end of February 

 and in March. Its nesting haunts are the rough marshy 

 lands adjoining the open broads and pools — more or 

 less reclaimed areas of ground studded with tufts of 

 rushes and hummocks of sedge. The Garganey probably 

 pairs for life, and appears to migrate in pairs and to 

 swim in company until the nesting season. The nest 

 of this species is made in a great variety of situations, 

 usually on the ground, but an instance is on record 

 where it was discovered in the stump of a willow tree. 

 Frequently it is placed near a footpath or even the 

 public highway. The favourite site appears always to 

 be the centre of a tuft of sedge, coarse grass, or rushes ; 

 occasionally it is made in long grass, heather, or even in 

 growing corn. It is a rather deep structure, made of 

 dry grass, dead rushes, leaves, and other vegetable 

 debris, warmly lined with down. The female is a 

 remarkably close sitter, but when flushed makes little or 

 no demonstration. 



