CHAULELAS.MUS STRKPERUS 183 



Lower Bengal we never expected to see many before November, and 

 I think they were most common in late December and early January. 

 Hume says, re birds again leaving : — 



"111 the south they leave by the end of March or early in April. 

 Farther north they are somewhat later (it depends a good deal on 

 the season), and both in Sind and the Western and North-western 

 Punjab they are frequently shot in (he first week of May." 



The dates are, I think, too late for Bengal and Assam, where there 

 are few birds left after the first week or so in March. When out 

 snipe-shooting in that month on extensive jheels and similar pieces of 

 water, a few Gadwall may still be put up, but nearly all that are seen 

 will be hurriedly making their wa\' north. 



Major Woods, I. M.S., says that even in Manipur they leave about 

 the end of March. 



An interesting fact noted by this close observer is, that many, 

 perhaps the majority, of the ducks pair off before leaving their winter 

 quarters. He says most of them pair in March, but that he has 

 noticed some pairing as early as February. No one seems ever to 

 have noticed these birds arriving at their breeding-grounds in pairs, 

 so it is to be presumed that, their preliminary courtship completed, 

 the pairs re-assemble in flocks which remain together until they 

 reach their nesting-haunts. 



The Gadwall ranks very high up in the table of duck precedence, 

 as there are so many good points about it which attract favourable 

 notice. As an article of diet few ducks are better. Some people 

 would give the prize in this respect to the mallard, others perhaps to 

 the pintail, but take the Gadwall all round, it is hard to beat on the 

 table. Personally, I have never known this duck to have a fishy or 

 other unpleasant flavour, nor have I met any Bengal sportsman who 

 has charged it with this crime. But the northern presidencies have 

 sometimes held men who have complained of this flavour when the 

 birds first arrive. They ought to be all right, as they are almost 

 entirely vegetable feeders, subsisting much on wild and cultivated 

 rice, water-weeds, &c., and seldom varying the diet with animal food. 

 A drake shot in Silchar was found to contain a mass of small white 

 worms in addition to some water berries and half-ripe rice, but this 

 in no way affected the flesh. 



