CHAULELASMUS STREPERUS IBl 



speaking, it is found in vast numbers from the Himalayas, through- 

 out Sind, North Bombay, the North-west Provinces, Punjab and 

 Bengal ; from there it gets less common as it wanders south, until iu 

 Southern India, south of Mysore, it is very seldom found at all, 

 though Dewar records that it occurs in Madras, and one has been 

 shot in Ceylon in the Hambantota district. 



Throughout Assam, Manipur, Tipperah, and in Burma it abounds, 

 and it is plentiful also in the Sunderbands. 



Nidiflcation. — The Gadwall has not yet been found to breed with- 

 in our limits, in spite of Hume's hopes to the contrary. That these 

 are not groundless, however, is shown by the fact, that a duck shot 

 in Cachar contained eggs in the ovaries as large as a big marble ; 

 and surely this bird could not have meant to have migrated far 

 for the purpose of breeding. This bird was shot in the end of 

 April. Again, a pair of birds were reported as having been shot 

 in Kashmir in June (date?), but the person who shot them, 

 finding the ovaries " very attenuated," jumped to the conclusion 

 that the birds could not have been breeding. Is it possible that 

 the eggs had been laid '.' 



Whitehead shot it near Lachi on the 20th May, 1906, and 

 Eattray got it at Thall iu June. 



It has been noted as breeding in the British Isles, and also in 

 Norway and Sweden ; indeed it has been found to nest as far north 

 as Iceland, and there is a doubtful record of its having been found in 

 Greenland. Its usual breeding-habitat is, however, far more south : 

 throughout Southern Europe from Spain to Russia — not in Northern 

 Africa, as far as we yet know — in North-west Asia, in the sub-Arctic 

 regions, and in North America, where it has been found during the 

 breeding-season as far south as Texas. 



A male shot on the '20th June, 1918, was sent me together with 

 some eggs said to have been taken from a nest on which the duck was 

 sitting. The Tibetan who had previously had very bad luck when 

 shooting small birds on their nests, was wisely afraid to shoot the 

 female, so shot the male which was swimming close by. The eggs 

 are quite typical Gadwall's eggs, and they are probably correct. A 

 cock pin-tail was shot a few days later in similar circumstances, and 

 here too the eggs are quite typical. Both nests were taken near the 

 Bhamtso Lake at an elevation of about 14,000 feet. 



