CHAULELAsMUi> 8TREPEliUS. 153 



the gropii scroon on our l)o;its. allowed lis often to o('t witliiii shot. Thev 

 dive and swim very well when only ^vound<>d, and many a ten minutes was 

 spent in retrieving such birds, for whose sake we oenei-ally ke])t a stock oi* 

 No. 8 cartridges ready at liand to use instead of tlie No. 4 or 7 -we used 

 for others. About 10 a.:m. our boats all worked in towards some fixed 

 point, and from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. was given over to lunch and smoke 

 and an examination of the bag. Between 1 and 2 P.M. we would again 

 embark, and tlie same routine was gone through only reversed, and the 

 shooting l)ack through the rice-fields was the finale of th(i afternoon's 

 progi-amme. 



It was seldom on such days that the three guns, who were generally 

 out, could not get their tiftv couple of game-birds, by which I mean that 

 Whistlers, Cotton-Teal, and even Snipe did not count towards the bag. As 

 a rule, the comparative numlier of Snipe would be small, as they were not 

 shot at except at the commencement and end of the day's shooting ; and 

 we always considered the bag good or otherwise according to the number 

 of Gadwall, Pintail, and other l)ig duck contained in it. 



I have ]io record now of what we uot, but certainly we often oot fifteen 

 couple of (zadwall, and sometimes over thirty, whilst on one occasion, I 

 think, the three of us got over forty couples. 



The Gadwall did not seem to mind much what sort of water it was in : 

 early in the mornings and late in the evenings tliey were to be found in 

 the rice-fields — generally, as I have already said, in some corner where the 

 cover was denser than elsewhere ; an hour after light they left tlie rice- 

 fields and were found swimming about in semi-open pieces of Avater, but 

 seldom in the large open expanses in the centre of the lake. It was very 

 noticeable that in the rice-fields the birds were constantly seen either singly 

 or in pairs, yet as soon as they left these they were very seldom found in 

 pairs, and practically never alone, but in flocks numbering ten to twenty, 

 sonaietimes as many as forty. They seem to ])ut on fat quicker than any 

 other duck, or perhaps they feel the excu'tion of migration I(\ss. 



Of course the Mallard, which migrates often from parts vei'v close to us, 

 arrives fat ; but I have noticed that early in the season, when other ducks 

 are very poor, the Gadwall is usually in quite a plum[) condition. 



The Gadwall has not yet Ijeen found to breed within our limits, in spite 

 of Hume^s hopes to the contrary. That these are not groundless, however, 

 is shown by the fact that a duck shot in Cachar contained eggs in the 

 ovaries as large as a big marble ; and sundy this l)ird could not have meant 

 to ]\n\<' migi'at<'d far for flic ])iirpo>-e of brcfding. Tins liird \\a< -hot in 



