332 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XL 



the pigeons, fowls, &c, on which it lives are present. It is quite possible 

 that it kills the fowls if it be numerous. The bite is bad, particularly in hot 

 countries ; the Persian specimens were once supposed to be capable of 

 killing human beings, which is probably incorrect ; still it is quite possible 

 that the bites inOame seriously in great heat.' 



" ' The Argas is a difficult thing to get rid of, as it is most tenacious of life, 

 and it is far from easy to kill it without killing the fowl ; probably sulphur 

 or carbolic acid would have the best chance. Those you sent alive were 

 still alive and quite well when I opened them.' " 



No. XVII.— THE OCEANIC TEAL {MARECA GIBBERIFRONS), 

 When I arrived at Port Blair in May, these teal where in good-sized flocks, 

 resorting principally, at low tide, to two little rocky islets, up the harbour, 

 known as Bird Island and Oyster Island. I did not go after them at that 

 time myself, not having a boat ; a fair, though not large number, were killed 

 by some of the officers stationed here, I believe eleven was the result of 

 four barrels on one occasion ! As the monsoon commenced and the harbour 

 became rougher, at the beginning of June, these flocks of teal broke up into 

 smaller parties of 5 or 6 to a dozen or so, and retired to the creeks and 

 dyke-intersected marshes, a little inland, near Bamboo Flat and Port Monatt. 

 Towards the end of June these small parties commenced to break up into pairs ; 

 about this time I shot several, and in the paired birds I found the testes of 

 the drakes enlarged, but the ovaries of the females were, as yet, in ordinary 

 condition. In the " Game Birds of India " Mr. Hume mentions a single nest 

 being found in August, and I should think that August or the end of July 

 would be the usual time of laying. I am afraid I am not likely to find a 

 nest, as there are so many hundreds of acres of suitable breeding ground, 

 and the birds are comparatively few. 



The Oceanic Teal feed a good deal in the paddy fields at night ; under 

 cover of darkness, too, a few birds aften drop into small tanks at Aberdeen 

 within a few yards of bungalows and buildings. When in flocks they are 

 very wild, but in pairs, on the small channels among the marshes, I found 

 them very tame. I have often been able to creep up to the water's edge 

 and watch a pair swimming quietly about within ten yards of me for some 

 time. On one occasion I came right on to a pair under an overhanging bush, 

 and they only fluttered, like waterhens, along the surface for twenty yards 

 or so, then pitched and commenced swimming away, so that I was able to 

 kill one on the water and the other as it rose, from where I stood. Of course 

 birds that have been shot at a bit go clean away at the first alarm. On these 

 creeks they associate with the common Whistling Teal, and I have watched 

 the two species in close company on the water, though the Oceanic Teal 

 separate from the others when put up. The only thing I noticed about 

 them, which I do not think has been recorded, is that they have a " quacking " 



