206 THE SHELDUCK AND SURFACE-FEEDING DUCKS 



2. Distribution. This species only breeds with us in very small numbers, 

 and is very local. The only counties in which it breeds at all regularly are Norfolk, 

 where it is diminishing in numbers, and in smaller numbers in Suffolk and Kent. 

 It formerly bred in Northumberland, and has nested within the last thirty years 

 in Durham, Yorkshire, Essex, Hants, and Somerset. No instances of breeding 

 are known from Scotland or Ireland. On the Continent it is said to breed in Iceland 

 and at Jaederen in Norway, nests in Sweden up to about lat. 60, and perhaps 

 also in Jemtland, in Finland, and from the Archangel and Vologda governments 

 and the Baltic provinces in Russia southward. In Denmark, Holland, and some 

 parts of North Germany, as well as in Hungary, it is fairly common, and breeds 

 in smaller numbers in France, North Italy, the Balkan states, Greece, Sicily, pro- 

 bably in Crete, Cyprus, and the southern governments of Russia. In Asia it breeds 

 in Asia Minor, Transcaspia, and on the Ob north to the Arctic Circle, Turkestan, 

 the Tomsk government, near Irkutsk, in Ussuria, Kamtschatka, and Mongolia. Its 

 migration range extends to Abyssinia, Somaliland, the Egyptian Sudan, and British 

 East Africa : hi Asia to Arabia, Persia, India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, China, 

 and Japan ; the Sunda Isles, Moluccas, Philippines, and Celebes. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Apart from the small British breeding stock (see preceding 

 paragraph), this species is an uncommon bird of passage to our islands, very rare 

 or unknown in some parts. In Kent the breeding birds are summer visitors, 

 sometimes arriving in March, but more usually in April ; they seek the coast about 

 the middle of July, and probably leave a month later (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 

 1909, p. 357). The southern and eastern parts of England are those hi which the 

 passage movements in early March and in autumn are most marked (cf. Saunders, 

 III. Man. Brit. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 435). To Ireland the garganey is a very rare 

 bird of passage, occurring chiefly in the south and west, and in March or April, 

 although also in January and February (cf . Saunders, loc. cit. ; and Ussher and 

 Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 198). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest may be found in meadows, among heather 

 or rank vegetation, and in marshes, and is a mere depression in the ground, lined 

 with grasses and other vegetable matter, to which down is added, sometimes only 

 while incubation is going on. (PI. Lxvrr.) It is formed by the duck alone, and 

 generally contains 6 or 7 to 10 eggs, occasionally as many as 13, which differ 

 little in size from those of the teal, but are a warm creamy yellow in colour, and 

 lack the greenish tinge. The down is also distinctive, being smaller than that of 

 the teal, sooty brown in colour, with light centres and distinct light tips. (PI. U.) 



