bottom which could be filled with water to give them a bath,

the bottom of the cage itself being barred, as those of all

travelling-cages should be.


Nevertheless, although every care was taken of them by

Mr. C. Fawns, Steward of the “ City of Oxford,” who very

kindly looked after them for me, only three survived the voyage.

I think I should have sent them in a cage divided into more

compartments. As it was, I had two only, with six birds in

each, and, though there was ample room for any ordinary birds

of the size, I fear these active but clumsy little things must have

trampled each other.


The food presented no difficulty : paddy (raw unhusked

rice) and canary-seed are eaten readily by these birds, and I

found they would also take grass cut fine, as well as the maggots

commonly given to insectivorous birds here. Naturally, they

feed mostly on small shell-fish and water-weeds, pecking about

on the surface more like a Waterhen than a Duck. They will

dive for food on occasion, but not readily or neatly like a Duck,

and when they tilt up their tails in ordinary duck-fashion, they

do it as quickly as they possibly can, not standing on their heads

for several seconds at a time like the others.


As I remarked above, they are very easy to tame ; one I

turned out on our large pond in the Museum grounds here, in a

very few days began to swim to me whenever I appeared, as she

laboured under the impression that I always had paddy secreted

about my person. In this she was mistaken, for as the pond was

full of natural food I did not feed her except occasionally ; but

she bore no malice for frequent disappointments, and stayed

for sometime, although full-winged when I turned her out. She

was then too weak to fly away, as far too many of the poor birds

fresh from the market are ; indeed, many of these Teal cannot

even stand at first.


I think the Cotton-Teal, if kept in a large aviary or well-

protected pond, would probably be easy to breed ; as I have seen

the birds courting in the fine Duck aviary at the Calcutta Zoo.

When they are doing this the drake bends down his bill so as to

arch his neck and show off its showy whiteness, and jerks open

his quills to display the otherwise concealed white patch. He is

a gallant little fellow, and will not peck the gentler sex of his

own species, as I had many opportunities of seeing when I had

them closely confined. From what I saw, however, I think two

drakes in a small space would probably damage each other



