[Crxv. XII, 



•^^ PAR.v. a2.] 



try to settle down again daring the shooting. These 

 things however are, if one has anything of the naturalist 

 in one, worth some attention. In the Key only the 

 alarm and call-notes are dealt with, but in the Remarks on 

 Individual Species below is collected all that has been 

 recorded by writers easily accessible in India. 



Whatever the reason may be, the males of the Duck 

 trilie all have a remarkable bulbous development at the base 

 of the windpi])e, the shape ditTering in dififerent species. This 

 peculiar formation is popularly supposed to have something 

 to do with voice-production, but the theory is upset by 

 the fact that the female Mallard, who has no bulb or " resonat- 

 ing chamber" in her throat, has a louder and clearer 

 note than the male who has. Pycraft in his " History 

 of Birds " thinks that tlie bull) is an organ which 

 has become hypertrophied and is now undergoing, in 

 consequence, a process of degeneration. It is certainly 

 curious that the Diving Ducks, which have the bulb 

 largest of all, do not even quack like the True Ducks but 

 only have a typical grating note kuw delivered once or 

 more, and are more silent in habit generally than the 

 True Ducks. 



Most of the True Ducks seem to ke?p up a constant chat" 

 tering or jabbering while feeding ; this has been specially 

 noted of the Spotbill, the Mallard, the Pintail, the 

 Garganey and the (xadwall, the incessant noise in the 

 case of the last named being sufficiently noticeable to 

 have earned the bird part of its Latin name, viz., slreperus. 



Many Duck not only quack but whistle. Two species 

 not dealt with in the present work, viz., the Larger and 

 Smaller Whistling Teal, derive their names from what 

 seems to the layman a very .unduck-like sound ; in the 

 case of the Ducks dealt with here which have the two 

 notes, the whistle seems to be the call and the quack the 

 alarm-note. Even the authorities however are cautious 

 in their pronouncements. Thus Hume (see below, Indivi- 

 dual Notes), thougiit himself at issue with Lord Lilford 

 about the note of the Common Teal ; Stuart-Baker thinks 

 them both right. There is, as might be expected, since 

 the call-notes chiefly used by the birds when flighting 

 at night, less information about these than about the 

 alarm-notes. The Key summarises and reconciles what is 

 to begot. 



The note of the Wigeon, which he uses both when 

 feeding, and when flying, deserves special mention. 

 Hume's description of it is given elsewhere; Scebohm 

 calls it a loud, prolonged whistle or scream, immediately 

 followed by a short note. He renders it mee-yu ; while 

 the name "Widgeon" itself is another attempt at repro- 

 ducing it. 



