The True Ducks. 195 



the water, but not very perpendicularly. 

 I have so seldom seen them on dry land 

 that I can speak with no certainty about 

 this ; but once, when emerging from a 

 dense reed-bed, through which I had 

 been carefully creeping in order to get 

 a shot at some Shelldrakes that I knew 

 to be paddling about somewhere near 

 the margin, I surprised a party of 

 Garganeys, all asleep, on a patch of turf 

 some ten yards square, almost entirely 

 surrounded by high reeds ; they seemed 

 to me to rise very clumsily, and I made 

 a tremendous bag with two barrels as 

 they flustered up. 



" They swim well, far more rapidly 

 when pressed than the Common Teal, 

 and dive better. They are altogether, 

 I should say, more vigorous and less agile 

 birds." 



I cannot quite agree with Mr. Hume 

 that the flight of the Garganey is less 

 rapid than that of the Common Teal. 

 To me it has always seemed that the 

 flight of this species was faster than that of 

 any other Duck I am acquainted with. 



The Garganey nests in Southern 

 Europe, but a few breed in England. 

 Mr. E. T. Booth tells us, in his " Rough 

 Notes": — "My own experience with 



