BKONZE-CAPPED DUCK 9 



even tolerated by geese, who usually maintain an attitude oi' 

 disagreeable exclusiveness. The gadwall drake shows off to his 

 mate in the same attitudes as the mallard, at which time the 

 sudden exposure of his snow-white wing-bar has a curious 

 flashing effect against the dull iron-grej^ plumage. In captivity 

 he is a devoted mate, vigorously defending his chosen duck, and 

 strictly refraining from aggression towards the mates of his 

 neighbours, a virtue not so common among ducks of the mallard 

 group as it might be. He is, in fact, the typical, good, stead3^ 

 reliable bird of his tribe. Outside India the gadwall has the same 

 wide range all round the northern parts of the world as the 

 mallard, but it is not always equally common everywhere ; it 

 is not, for instance, abundant at- the very far end of Asia any 

 more than in Britain. The Bengali name is Peing-hans, the 

 Nepaulese Mail, the Sindhi Bard; while other appellations 

 are the Hindustani Bhuar and Beykhur. 



Bronzc-cappcd Duck. 



* Eunetta falcata. Kala Sinkhar, Hindustani. 



I quite agree with Hume that the name of " falcated," applied 

 generally to this bird, is not English and is misleading ; but I 

 cannot follow him in calling it a teal, for its size is so much 

 larger than that of any teal, and its afiinities to the gadwall so 

 obvious, that that term is misleading also. Indeed, the female 

 is almost exactly like the gadwall female, though easy enough to 

 recognize if one remembers that it has the wing-bar black instead 

 of white, the feet grey instead of orange, and the bill all black, 

 not orange-bordered. 



The full-plumaged drake, with his lovely silky-crested head of 

 green and bronze, his white neck crossed by a dark-green collar, 

 and the bunch of long curved feathers in each wing— it is these 

 that are "falcated" or sickle-shaped, not the bird — is at once dis- 

 tinguishable from all other ducks. The general plumage is grey 

 at a distance, but close at hand is seen to be made up of pencil- 

 lings of black and white, as in most grey-looking ducks. The 



* Anas on plate. 



