492 



remember to have come across any piece of water in India during the cold season in which there 

 were any Ducks without seeing the Gadwall. Ponds, lakes, rivers are all alike to them, at any 

 rate, during the day-time ; and, as a rule, I think that with us they are, until fired at once or 

 twice, far from wary. They come during October ; and some of them remain, especially towards 

 the north-west, as late as quite the end of April, though lower down the country it is rare to 

 meet with them after the first of that month." 



How far to the southward this Duck is met with in Africa I cannot say. Professor Schlegel 

 (Mus. P.-B. Anseres, p. 48) writes that it has been obtained by M. Verreaux at the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; but Mr. E. L. Layard (Ibis, 1869, p. 76) points out that this must surely be a mistake, 

 and further states that he does not think that the Gadwall is found in South Africa. 



To the westward it has been recorded from Cuba, Bermuda (E. von Martens), and Jamaica 

 (B. Albrecht). Professor Baird gives its range in the United States as " North America generally." 

 Captain Blakiston writes that " the Gadwall was seen and examined on the Saskatchewan by 

 myself; and a specimen is recorded thence in the ' Fauna Boreali-Americana.' I have, moreover, 

 seen a specimen from Hudson's Bay." 



I did not meet with it in New Brunswick ; but my friend Mr. Boardman informs me that it 

 does occur there, though rare. Dr. Elliott Coues records it from South Carolina as common ; and 

 it occurs down into Texas and Mexico. I found it not uncommon near Eagle Pass during the 

 winter, and on the ponds and streams between that place and San Antonio. On the 2nd of June 

 I shot one on Galveston Island. It is met with equally numerous in Western America. Mr. 

 E. Brown found it on Vancouver's Island ; and Mr. J. A. Allen records it from the Great Salt 

 Lake. I may further add the following notes given by Audubon : — " I have met with this species 

 along the whole of our Atlantic coast, from Eastport, in Maine, to Texas. It is, however, more 

 abundant in the interior than in most of our maritime districts, and is particularly so on the 

 tributaries of the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi. In the early part of autumn and late in spring 

 many are found on the margins of our great lakes. Yet the Gadwall has been represented as 

 not plentiful in the United States, probably on account of its being generally dispersed, and not 

 congregated in particular districts. 



" The Creoles of Louisiana name it ' Violon,' on account of the whistling sound of its wings. 

 It arrives in the neighbourhood of New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi along with 

 the Widgeon, and is fond of the company of the Rod-head, to which it is about equal as an 

 article of food. The Gadwalls are usually seen in small flocks, and during winter resort to the 

 larger lakes and pools in the interior of the great marshes, adjoining the waters of the Gulf. In 

 that part of the country they feed on small fish, insects, and aquatic grasses. Fewer of them 

 are found in Massachusetts and the State of New York than elsewhere ; and this is probably on 

 account of these districts being more elevated and less marshy than those further south. My 

 friend Dr. Bachman informs me that they are rather plentiful in South Carolina, where they are 

 considered good eating, and where they arrive in the beginning of October, but are more 

 frequently met with at that season and in early spring than during winter, when a single 

 individual may sometimes be seen in a flock of other Ducks. While we were in Texas, in the 

 latter part of April and the beginning of May, we found the Gadwall quite abundant on all the 

 island ponds and streams, as well as on the brackish pools and inlets of the islands and shores of 



