PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 195 



with concentric bars of black, while the breast and abdomen are white. The rump 

 and under tail-coverts are of a dark glossy green, almost black. In his " eclipse " 

 dress June, September the back is dusky, transversely barred with white : the 

 minor coverts are marked like the back : the rump is of a dusky brown, and the 

 upper tail-coverts are barred with buff. The fore-breast is buff with large brown 

 spots ; while the mid-breast is white with short, oblong, incomplete dusky bars. 

 The female resembles the female mallard, but may at once be distinguished by the 

 speculum, which differs from that of the male only in its smaller size, and the 

 absence of red on both speculum and minor coverts. The juvenile dress resembles 

 that of the female, but males are darker on the back than females of the same age, 

 and in this they recall the adult male in his " eclipse " dress. The young in down 

 differs from the young mallard of the same stage in that the dark band before and 

 behind the eye is narrower, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. As a breeding species in the British Isles the gadwall 

 is confined to East Anglia and one or two localities in Southern Scotland. It 

 breeds now in some numbers in Norfolk, especially at Merton, and also locally in 

 Suffolk. In Scotland it is known to have bred in 1909 and 1910 at a loch in the 

 Forth area, as well as in Peebles in 1906. It has not yet been proved to nest in 

 Ireland, but owing to its inconspicuous colouring is apt to be overlooked. Outside 

 the British Isles a few pairs breed in North Iceland, and on the Continent it is not 

 uncommon in Svearike and Gotarike in South Sweden ; it breeds locally in Germany, 

 Holland, and Denmark, and also in Moravia, Galizia, and Hungary; while in Russia, 

 though recorded from Archangel, it is chiefly confined to the south (Poland and 

 the governments of Moscow, Riazan, Kazan, and Perm). It also breeds in Bulgaria 

 and the Dobrogea, probably in Thessaly, and nests not uncommonly in Southern 

 Spain. Salvin and Tristram found nests at Zana in Algeria in 1857. In Asia 

 its breeding range extends from Transcaspia, Turkestan, and the south of the 

 Tobolsk and Tomsk governments to lat. 60 N. in East Siberia ; and in North 

 America it inhabits the temperate parts of the continent south to Texas. Its 

 migration range in the Old World extends to North Africa and Abyssinia ; in Asia 

 to the Persian Gulf, India (except in the extreme south), Burma, China, Japan, etc., 

 and in America to Mexico and Florida, while as a casual it has occurred on the 

 Kuriles and Commander Isles, and in the Bermudas, Cuba, and Jamaica. [F. o. R. jr.] 



3. Migration. A resident species and also a winter visitor from the 

 Continent : mainly a very irregular and uncertain winter visitor, usually arriving 

 some time between 23rd September and 29th October, but exceptionally as early as 



