370 



ANSERES. 



ANATID^. 



ANATID.E. 



Anas strepera, Linnaeus.* 



THE GAD WALL. 



Anas strepera. 



The Gadwall, or Grey Duck, is, on the whole, a rare 

 visitor to the British Islands ; although, owing to the 

 resemblance of the female and young to those of the 

 Mallard, it has, perhaps, been considered even more un- 

 common than it really is. Still, the tabulated records of the 

 famous Ashby Decoy, in Lincolnshire, which show the com- 

 parative numbers of six species of wild-fowl taken there 

 between September 1833 and April 1868, conclusively prove 

 that between those dates the Gadwall was of very rare occur- 

 rence in that part of the east of England ; no year showing 

 more than three captures, and many having none at all 

 against them, out of the thousands of Wild Ducks of other 



* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 200 (1766). This species has been placed by some 

 systematists in a separate genus, Chaulelasmus, on account of the lamellie of 

 the upper mandible being more pronounced than in typical Anas ; but for the 

 purposes of the present work this distinction appears to the Editor to be 

 unnecessary. 



