NETTION ALBIGULARE. 177 



Mr. A. L. Butlei' to the B. N. H. S. Jouruul. Lately as this interesting 

 note has appeai'ed, I feel that there is no apology needed, except to 

 Mr. Butler, for again producing it here, nor would any account of the 

 Andaman Teal be up to date were it omitted : — '" When I arrived at Port 

 Blair in May, these Teal were 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 

 haAang a boat ; but 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 I As the monsoon commenced, and the harljour became 

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

 smaller parties of five or six to a dozen or so, and retired to the creeks and 

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

 Mouat. Towards the end of June these small parties began to break up 

 into pairs ; about this time I shot several, and in the paired birds I found 

 the testes of the males 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 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 often drop into small tanks at 

 Aberdeen within a few yards of bungalows and buildings. When in 

 flocks they are very wild, but in pairs, in 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 quieth' 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 water-hens, along the 

 surface for twenty yards or so, then i)itched 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' note as well as a low whistle. 

 One day a party of eight or ten, at which some shots had been fired, after 

 wheeling round and round for some time, pitched on a narrow channel. 



