GAD WALL. 29 



eclipse plumage and moult the flight feathers ; this dress is a 

 mixture of that of the female and young male. 



The downy juveniles are brown and buft, with a few white 

 patches and a noticeable dark streak through the eye beneath 

 a stripe of buff, also a dark mark on the ear. They are 

 carefully guarded by the duck alone, and if threatened she 

 strives to lure away the intruder by extravagant performances, 

 flogging the water with her wings, taking short rushing flights, 

 quacking vigorously, indeed any action that will call attention 

 to herself. The ducklings scatter, some dive in the rushes or 

 grass and hide, others run out over the water, their light bodies 

 unsubmerged, and dive when well clear of the bank ; when 

 they reappear they show only head and neck and again go 

 u!)der. 



The drake in winter dress, already described, has the upper 

 and under tail-coverts black. The bill is yellowish olive, 

 occasionally orange in old birds, the legs reddish orange, 

 the irides brown. Young males closely resemble the mottled, 

 olive-billed females, but their heads and backs are noticeably 

 darker. Wild hybrids with Gadwall, Pintail, and Eider have 

 been described. Length, 23 ins. Wing, 11 ins. Tarsus, 175 ins. 



Gadwall. Aftas strepcra Linn. 

 The breeding range of the Gadwall (Plate 17) is almost as 

 wide as that of the Mallard, practically the northern temperate 

 regions south of the Arctic circle ; in winter it is found in 

 Africa as far south as the Sudan, is well known in India and 

 China and throughout North America. In the British Isles it 

 has been successfully established as a breeding species in East 

 Anglia, the first attempt made some sixty years ago by pinion- 

 ing birds that had been captured in decoys ; not only did these 

 birds rear young, but wild immigrants were attracted and 

 remained to nest. Within recent \ears a few pairs have been 

 found nesting in Scotland, even in the extreme north ; indeed 



