230 INDIAN DUCKS 



Hartert gives the following measurenients for 119 eggs: — 



Average 44'96 X 32'48mni. (r77 x r28 inches). 

 Maxima 4s y 3o ,, (I'O x 1'38 mm.). 



Minima ■]f)Jl x _££_;' „ (r,54 x I'l? mm.). 



General Habits. — It would seem that in the extreme north and 

 north-west the Garganey is perhaps the earliest of the ducks to arrive 

 in India, but further east it is quite a toss-up as to whether the 

 common teal or the Garganey first puts in an appearance. On the 

 whole, I should think the common teal is the earlier of the two. 



Even in the west the Garganey is not always the first, the 

 common teal being sometimes the first recorded. 



It is very noticeable that, though in migrating south the birds 

 once in India take long to work further down the Peninsula, yet they 

 work north very speedily. 



In Northern India they arrive in September, and have even been 

 seen as early as August, but, according to Theobald and others, they 

 do not get to Southern India liefore December. Leaving, howevei', 

 they delay until March and April, much the same time that they 

 leave all portions of their winter home, though everywhere a few stay 

 through May, and even into June. 



As regards the numbers they arrive in, Hume's notes on one of 

 his enormous bags shows what may be sometimes seen. He writes : — • 



" 1 have a special note of having found a flock, which I estimated 

 to contain 20,000 individuals, at Eahun in the Etawah district, on 

 the 28th August, 1865. Never before, or since, have I seen so 

 huge a body of fowl of one kind, and I have noted that I bagged 

 forty-seven of them, besides losing at the time many wounded birds 

 (I had no dogs with me) in the rushes. 1 had sent my gun-punt 

 (huilt exactly on the lines of one of our Norfolk boats) a few days 

 previously out there to see that it was alright for the coming season, 

 and I had taken with me a small Init heavy Monghyr-made swivel- 

 gun, earring only 8 ozs., to try. To my surprise I found the thickest 

 l)ody of fowl — on the open part of the jhil — I had ever seen. I 

 loaded the swivel with No. 4 shot and worked up quite close to some 

 of them, and within some fifty yards of the main body, when seeing 

 they were all about to start, I fired and knocked over at least sixty : 

 I actually secured forty-seven." 



This was thirty-five years ago, and I fear that flocks like this one 

 are things of the past, though Garganey may now and then be met 



