Ii50 INIUAN ])rCKS. 



re<i"ious, and in the winter ran^r.- down to Northern and ( 'entral Africa, and 

 perhaps even further south, ahnost the wliole ot" Southern A>ia, and a<rain 

 a- far south a- ^Mexico and Jamaica in America. 



Within India, it i- ea-ier to >ay wliere it is not found rather than to 

 enumerate all thu.-e place- in which it does occur. Koughly speaking, it is 

 found in vast numliers from the Himalayas, througliout Sind, North 

 Bombay, tlie Xoitli-Wc-r Provinces. Funjal). and Bengal : from there it ^^ets 

 less common as it wander> south, until in Southern India, south of Mysore, 

 it is not found at all, though Dewar record< that it occurs in Madras. 



Throughout Assam, Manipur, Tipperali. and in Buiinah it abounds, and 

 it i- jilcntiful al-o in the SuimI'tIiuiuI-. Of course, in some places it i< more 

 exceedingly aljundant than in other-. Thus in 1^582— 80, in Bengal, we 

 fitund that the (nnlwall- numbered at least two to every one of all otluu* 

 kinds of duck- hmijied together. Of a magnificent Ijag made l)y three 

 guns in the Moolna bheel (Sunderbundsj, out of 140 coujde Ducks and Teal 

 I think at least -lO couple, if not more, must have been Gad wall, and of tlu^ 

 rest probaljly 70 or 80 couple were Teal of sorts. Woods speaks of patches 

 ot wate]- in ^lanipur " looking Ijlack with tlie number of Gadwall assembled 

 there." They begin to arrive there, according to him, about the lotli 

 October, and though in Kashmir and along the Himalayas a few bird- may 

 aiTive earlier, this will be found to be about the earliest date for Northern 

 India. 



In Mysore they do not arri^■e until the end of November as a I'ule, and 

 at intervening places will Ije obtained on intervening dates. In Lower 

 Bengal we never expected to see many before November, and I think they 

 Avere most conniion in late December and early January. Hume says, re 

 birds again leaving : — " In the south they leave b}- the end of March or 

 early in A[)ril. Farther north they are somewhat later (it depends a good 

 deal on the season) : and both in Sind and the Western and North-western 

 I'linjal) tli<-y ai-e frequently -hot in the first week of May." The dates are, 

 I think, too late for Bengal and Assam, where there are few birds left after 

 the first week or so in March. When out snipe-shooting in that month on 

 extensive jheels and similar pieces of water, a few Gadwall may still be put 

 U|i. but nearly all that are seen will be hun-iedly making their way north. 



Majoi- Wood-. I. M.S., says that even in .Ar;iiii|,nr they lea\-e about the 

 end of March. 



An interesting fact noted by thi- elo-e ob-erver is, that many, pei'haps 

 the majority, of the ducks paii- off befoi-e leaving their winter-quarters. 

 He says mo-t o\; them pair in ^laieli. but that he ha- noticed .-onie [lairing 



