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the winter in the south— nowhere, however, common. In Portugal, Professor Barboza du Bocage 

 writes, it cannot be said to be common ; but Mr. Howard Saunders records it as " abundant in 

 many parts of Spain during the winter, and up to April, and breeds at Santa Olaya;" however, 

 Major Irby informs me that, according to his experience, it is by means common in Andalucia, 

 and during four winters he himself came across only two shot in flight ("one in November, the 

 other in December), and saw two others in the Seville Market in February and March. In a 

 letter just received from Lord Lilford he informs me that he " found this species in May 1872 

 about the small lakes at Santa Olaya, in the Coto de Doiiana, where no doubt it breeds, though 

 we did not meet with the nest. I obtained specimens in Seville in February and March of the 

 same year ; but it does not appear to be common in that neighbourhood, as Manuel Llano, the 

 principal duck-shooter, had no name for it. In the Coto de Doiiana it is known as ' Frisa.' " 

 Passing eastward, again, I find it recorded as occurring during migration and in the winter 

 season in Savoy and Sardinia, in which latter country, Lord Lilford tells me, he has himself 

 shot it ; and Mr. Howard Saunders informs me that it is met with in Sicily during the winter, 

 being especially numerous in the marshes of Catania and Lentini. Mr. C. A. Wright states that 

 it occurs in Malta occasionally during the winter season. Lord Lilford met with it in the Ionian 

 Islands commonly during the winter ; and in Greece, according to Lindermayer, it winters, but 

 leaves before the equinoctial gales. Messrs. Elwes and Buckley, who likewise found it common 

 in Macedonia, believe that some remain there to breed; and this is not improbable, as I have 

 obtained the eggs from the Danube, where I met with it in the early spring, but where it does 

 not appear to be common ; and as regards its occurrence in Styria, the late Mr. Seidensacher 

 informed me that he only once met with it. Professor von Nordmann writes that it is very 

 common in Southern Russia; and Mr. Goebel records it as breeding commonly on the large 

 ponds at Uman, where he found one nest on the 28th of May containing six, and another on 

 the 20th of May with four fresh eggs. Menetries does not include it in his list of the birds 

 found in the Caucasus; but it is found in Asia Minor, and Canon Tristram met with it in 

 Palestine during the winter season. According to Captain Shelley it " ranges throughout Egypt 

 and Nubia, and is moderately abundant, frequenting the large sheets of water in preference to 

 ■the small pools and canals. I have shot it in Lower Egypt, the Fayoom, and up the Nile to El 

 Kab." Mr. Osbert Salvin and Major Loche, as well as Canon Tristram, all record it as found in 

 Algeria, where it occurs during the winter, and is tolerably common on Lake Fezzara and near 

 Constantine; but Loche states that it only occurs periodically. Major Irby informs me that it 

 is by no means common in Morocco, where Favier states it to be " irregular and uncertain 

 in appearance between March and November." Lord Lilford shot it in Tunis. It does not 

 appear to occur on the islands. 



To the eastward it is met with in Siberia, except, according to Pallas, in the far east. Badde 

 found it only in the Transbaikal and the eastern Sajan Mountains ; and Middendorff procured it 

 in the Stanowoi and on the south coast of the Sea of Ochotsk. Mr. Swinhoe obtained it in 

 China, at Shanghae, where, however, it is rare ; and Professor Schlegel possesses a specimen in 

 full plumage obtained in Japan by Mr. Burger. " Throughout India," Mr. A. O. Hume writes, 

 " the Gadwall is perhaps the most plentiful species of Duck during the whole of the cold season. 

 I have it from Debrogurh on the east, and Attock and Kurrachee on the west. I hardly ever 



