ANDAMAN TEAL 
293 
male accompanied the family on the only occasion on which he foimd a brood. The 
female flew round and round within twenty yards, uttering a low double quack, but 
the drake kept farther off and was silent. The male also accompanied the female and 
brood of a pair that nested in the London Gardens (Finn, 1907). 
Status. This duck was never particularly numerous. What its history has been 
in the last quarter of a century I do not know; nor do I know what noxious mammals 
have spread to the Andaman Islands, but it does not seem likely that this region has 
escaped the introduction of some foreign pest, the curse of island faunas. The com- 
mon occurrence of white-headed individuals like those described by Fleming (1911) 
may indicate a general reduction in numbers followed by inbreeding, which might 
quite easily account for this abnormality. 
Enemies. Nothing recorded. 
Damage. Probably little or none. 
Food Value. Butler found them generally fat, with tender skins, making them 
rather difficult birds to prepare as specimens. The supposition is that they are good 
table-birds. 
Hunt. Nothing known, excepting that they were rather persistently hunted by 
the British officers around Port Blair. Butler speaks of as many as seventeen being 
shot with four barrels. 
Behaviok in Captivity. These Teal have very rarely been imported into Eu- 
rope. They were kept in the Zoological Gardens in Calcutta, where they turned out 
to be inveterate fighters, well able to look out for themselves even in competition with 
the Whistling Teal (Finn, 1915). Butler mentions one at Port Blair that thrived 
well on “paddy,” but did not become very tame. 
The London Gardens reeeived specimens in June, 1903, and these bred in the years 
1905 and 1906 (Hubbard, 1907; Wormald, in litt.). The Berlin Gardens possessed 
specimens at least as early as 1894 (Miiller-Liebenwalde, 1894). 
Finn (1907) says that the drake accompanied the duck in a pair which bred in 
London. The female nested on the ground, and the birds were at all times very 
active, perching freely. Since that time a stock of inbred Mangrove Teal has been 
kept up in these gardens. In 1922 there was only a single bird left and this one was 
almost entirely white-headed. The Curator told me the whiteness of the head had 
been progressive in this stock the more it became inbred. 
GEOGRAPHICAL RACES 
A SUBSPECIES of this Teal, based on a much whiter head, and other characters which do not seem of 
importance, was named by J. H. Fleming in 1911. I rather doubt the validity of this race, but include 
