530 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ANAS STREPERA. 

 GADWALL. 



(PLATE 64.) 



Anas strepera, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 339 (1760) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 200 (1766) ; et 

 auctorum plurimorum Temminck, Wilson, Audubon, (Dresser), Saunders, 

 &c. 



Anas cinerea, S. G. Omel. Reise Russl. ii. p. 184 (1774). 



Anas kekuschka, S. G. Gmel. Reise Russl. iii. p. 249 (1774). 



Ktinorhyiichus strepera (Briss.), Eyton, Monogr. Anat. p. 137 (1838). 



Chaulodus strepera (Briss.}, Swains. Journ. Roy. Inst. ii. p. 19 (1839). 



Chaulelasmus strepera (Briss.), Gray, Gen. B. iii. p. 617 (1840). 



Querquedula strepera (Briss.), Macgill. Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 169 (1840). 



Owing to its excessive shyness and partiality for dense cover, the Gad- 

 wall is regarded as a much rarer visitor to the British Islands than is 

 really the case. It is a winter visitor to the United Kingdom, but appears 

 to have been introduced in several localities in Norfolk, where it is said to 

 breed regularly. It occurs sparingly in winter in the Orkneys and Shet- 

 lands, on both the east and west coasts of Scotland, and on many of the 

 Hebrides. It is a somewhat rare visitor to the coasts of England, and is 

 said to be of much more, frequent occurrence in many parts of Ireland than 

 is generally supposed. It is found on inland sheets of water as well as 

 those nearer the coast which afford plenty of cover. 



The Gadwall is a circumpolar bird, but its range does not extend into 

 the Arctic regions, though a few breed as far north as Iceland. It appears 

 to be unknown in Norway, [and is very sparingly distributed in South 

 Sweden and the Baltic provinces*; thence its range extends eastwards 

 through Southern Siberia to the Pacific coast, where it has occurred as far 

 north as the Stanavoi Mountains, in lat. 60. The southern limit of its 

 breeding-range is the Spanish peninsula and the valley of the Danube, the 

 northern shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian, and Northern Turkestan. 

 A few remain to winter on the coasts of Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, 

 and Portugal. In the basin of the Mediterranean and Africa north of the 

 Desert it is principally known as a winter visitor. On the Asiatic con- 



* The occurrence of the Gadwall as far north as Archangel, recorded by Dresser and 

 Saunders, appears to me to be very doubtful. It is said to occur only accidentally on 

 migration as far north as St. Petersburg ; but there is no evidence that it breeds north of 

 the Baltic provinces, and even there it is a very rare bird. 



