82 F. Finn — Note on the gait of theCotton Teal. [April. 



In G. K. Gray's genera of Birds, Vol. Ill, the article being dated 

 1844, in the remarks on the genns Nettapus (as there spelt) Blyth is 

 quoted as observing " It is remarkable that the Indian species seems 

 totally incapable of standing or walking upon the groB;ndy bnt invariab- 

 ly flutt^'s^along it in a strange scuffling manner, like a wounded bird." 

 Some yeara later, Blyth in his Catalogue^ of the Birds in the Museum", 

 Asiatic Society, (1849), states in a foot-note to page 302, that the birds 

 of this genus nevei stand up as represented in Mr. Gould's plates (Birds 

 of Australia, N, pulchelhcs and N. coromandelianus = chlhii)ennis) but after 

 walking a few steps, always squat. 



Dr. Jerdon, in his Birds of India, Vol. 11, Pt. ii, p. 788, observes 

 that Blyth had noticed " the peculiar shuffling gait of these ducks when 

 on land " and quotes the statement given above to the effect that the- 

 birds always squat after walking a short distance. 



In Blyth's Commentai-y on Jerdon, (Ibis 1867, p. 175), the former 

 author again says "^the published figures of the species of this group, 

 representing them as standing on the ground like ordinary ducks, are 

 erroneous. They squat, creep, and are only able to shuffle forward a few 

 paces." 



Finally, Mr. Hume, in the* " Game-birds and Wildfowl of India, 

 (1881), Vol. Ill, p. 104, says " on land they seldom venture, though I 

 liave seen them occasionally feeding or re&ting on small grassy islands j 

 but as Blyth long ago rem^arked, they cannot walk at all, they only wab- 

 ble along, shuffling as if their bodies were too heavy for their legs, yet 

 when on trees. they stand firm enough, and betray no weak- 

 ness in the lower extremities." Further on, p. 108, he says, apropos of 

 the plate he gives of this species, that "its mily fault is, that neither oo 

 land nor in water do the birds ever stalk about with their legs visible 

 below them.'^ 



It is on account of this cansensus of authorities that I have brought 

 for exhibition to-night living birds of this species, to confirm the remarks 

 I am about to make concerning it. 



During more than a year past I have had many opportunities of 

 serving Cotton-Teal in confinement, andafter watching the gait and ob- 

 movements of numerous specimens, I can confidently assert that the in- 

 ability to walk attributed to the species by tlie above excellent observers, 

 is not in reality natural to it, but merely the result of fright, weakness, 

 or injury. [The bird, when frightened, will squat where another duck 

 would stand up.] 



Captive birds, even though not perching, frequently stand up with 

 their legs visible beneath them, in the attitude of any ordinary duck, 

 and they also walk in this position, though they will often shuffle 

 alo^ng a few steps without rising pi-operly to their feet. 



