CHAI'LELAsiir:, sTEEPERUS. 151 



as early as February. Xo one seems ever to have noticed these birds 

 arriving at their breeding-ground> in pairs, so it is to be presumed that, 

 their preliminary courtship completed, the pairs re-assemlile in flocks which 

 remain together until they reach their nesting-haunts. 



The Gradwall ranks very high i;[> in the table of (kick precedence, as 

 there are so many good points about it \vliich attract favourable notice. 

 As an article of diet few ducks are better. Some people would give the 

 prize in this respect to the Mallard, others perhaps to the Pintail, but take 

 the Gadwall all round it is hard to beat on the table. Personally, I have 

 never known this duck to have a fi-hyor other unpleasant flavour, nor have 

 I met any Bengal sportsman who has charged it with this crime. But the 

 iS^orthern Presidencies have held men sometimes who have complained of 

 this flavour when they first arrive. They oxialit to be alright, as they are 

 almost entirely vegetable-feeder^. >ubsi>ting much on wild and cultivated 

 rice, water-weeds, &c., and seldom varying the diet with animal food, A 

 drake shot in Silchar was found to contain a mass of small white worms iu 

 addition to some water berrie- and half-ripe rice, but thi> in no way 

 affected the flesh. 



Before cooking, however, he has to be shot, and though not, as a rule, a 

 very shy bird, yet he is quite wide awake enough to make the getting 

 within shot of him an interesting, if not difficult, job. Where, too. he has 

 been much shot at. all one's ingenuity and per>everance will be required 

 before the game-bag can be made to assume the bulgy appearance it ought. 

 Then, when you have got within shot, the Gadwall proves a thoroughly 

 sporting bird : he is quick oil the water, rising rather straight up into the 

 air, and getting verv soon well under wav : ami in full flight the Cxadwall 

 is even faster than the Mallard, and. as many writers have observed, reminds 

 one much of Teal in the manner of fl^'ino- and the swish-swish of the wings 

 as the flock hurtles overhead, leaving, let u- ho[ie. two birds in response 

 to the right and left with which it has been greeted. 



When sliooting in the old days over vast jheels in Khulna and Jessore, 

 though Teal might and generally did form the majority of the birds got, yet 

 we alwavs ho})ed that Gadwall would, and it was certainly these birds that 

 gave us the most sport. 



In some ])laces the jheels themselves, vast stretcher of water, shallow in 

 the cold weather and much overgrown all round their borders with weeds, 

 reeds, and lilic-. were surrounded with ]-ice-field<. and through these 

 wandered shallow water-ways, some natural and others artiticiallv made 

 either for drainino- or irrigation. 



