352 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



kinds of Water Fowl, even with Geese. It swims well and lightly, .and walks on 

 land in a rather graceful manner, sometimes running ahout the marshy ground in 

 quest of insects. It dives easily when wounded, but never does so whilst feeding. 

 The food of the Gadwall consists of the seeds, leaves, and buds of rushes and other 

 aquatic plants, wild and cultivated rice, insects and their larvae, worms, frogs, 

 and small fish. Hume states that small butterflies and moths are caught by 

 this Duck. The flesh of this Duck as a rule is very good, especially in India as 

 long as the rice lasts, but it is of poor flavour if the bird has been feeding much 

 upon an animal diet. 



Nidification. The Gadwall usually begins to breed in May, and the eggs 

 are laid towards the end of that month or early in June, both in the Old World 

 and the New World. The nest is usually well concealed amongst the vegetation 

 on the banks of the water, but occasionally it has been met with some distance 

 from the pool or stream. It is merely a hollow in the ground strewn with dry 

 grass and bits of dead vegetation, and warmly lined with down from the body of 

 the female. The eggs are from six to thirteen in number, ten being an average 

 clutch. They are huffish-white or cream-colour with a faint greenish tinge, very 

 smooth in texture and somewhat glossy, and measure on an average 2'1 inches 

 in length by 1'5 inch in breadth. The down is neutral grey, with scarcely per- 

 ceptible white tips. Incubation, performed by the female, lasts, according to 

 Naumann, from twenty-one to twenty-two days. One brood only is reared in 

 the year, and the ducklings are conveyed to the water soon after they are hatched. 



Diagnostic characters. (Nuptial Plumage), Chaulelasmus, with the 

 alar speculum white, and the wing 11 inches in length. Length, 20 to 21 inches. 



