GARGANEY TEAL 
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and parts of leguminous weeds (Mason and Lefroy, 1912). It would not be surpris- 
ing if on careful analysis the autumn and winter food was found to contain 30 to 
40% animal substance and the summer food 60 or 70%. 
Courtship and Nesting. The display is very different from that of the Mal- 
lard, Teal or Pintail and closely resembles that of the Shoveller. All that I my- 
self saw was a simple raising and lowering of the head on the part of the male, but 
Wormald (1914) says that the male frequently throws the head backward and for- 
ward as well as up and down, at the same time uttering his well-known crackling 
note, acting therefore similarly to our Blue-wing, except for the note uttered. He 
goes on to say that this species and the Shoveller have another habit in common — 
that of “swimming in circles round and round, the bills of both male and female 
being partly submerged in the water just behind and below the tail of the other.” 
He is not positive that this is a courtship performance, but he saw it only during the 
spring of the year. Millais (1902) describes the same curious spinning trick, and has 
little doubt that it is part of the display. It seems to me that this is doubtful, for it 
is a very different action from the typical displays of the surface-feeders and can be 
better explained as a feeding trick. 
Mating flights, which are common on the breeding grounds, are the same as those 
seen in other surface-feeding ducks. They were well described long ago by Naumann. 
That writer also noticed that many birds arrived on the nesting grounds unpaired, 
and these he presumed to be young of the previous year. There seems to be an idea 
prevalent that the young Garganeys do not breed till the second year, but though 
there may be many individual cases of this kind it seems to me hardly possible that 
it is the rule with this or any other species of surface-feeding duck. Hand-reared 
stock has often bred when only one year old. 
The nesting season is early, considering the late migration of this bird, but as a 
matter of fact there are not many nesting dates to be found, and one cannot get a 
very exact idea of the average time of laying. In western Europe the breeding 
season is in late April and early May. No doubt it is somewhat later in eastern 
Europe and Siberia. A nest was found by Bucknill (1911) in Cyprus on May 14. 
In Bulgaria a female was shot from a nest with highly incubated eggs on June 3 
(Reiser, 1894). 
The Garganey is not at all particular about the nesting locality. In southern and 
western Tibet it has been found at altitudes of over 15,000 feet (Walton, 1906; 
Parrot, 1909) and at high altitudes in Turkestan and Pamir (Lansdell, 1885). The 
nest itself is placed in a variety of situations, sometimes almost in the water, at other 
times at a considerable distance from water, on high, dry ground. Not infrequently 
it is placed in the woods near some forest swamp. There is nothing noteworthy 
about the nest itself, excepting that it is usually very well concealed, and often 
arched over by surrounding vegetation. 
