GARGANEY TEAL. 161 
GARGANEY TEAL. 
QUERQUEDULA orrcia, Linn. 
Pl. XXIV., fig. 2. 
Geogr. distr.—Greater part of Palearctic Region ; India in winter, 
probably extending into the Indo-Malayan subregion; N. E. Africa: 
in Great Britain it is rare in Scotland and on the western coast of 
England, somewhat less so in the southern counties; it breeds in 
Norfolk. 
Food.—Insects, Mollusca, small fish, plants, and seeds. 
Nest and position of same.—A mere depression in the ground in a 
meadow, or a grassy mound in a morass, usually near water, or, 
according to Hewitson, it is “composed of rushes and dried grass, 
mixed with the down of the bird, is placed upon the ground in low, 
boggy situations, among the coarse herbage and rushes in marshes, 
and on the borders of inland waters and rivers.” 
Number of eggs.—8-12, or even more. 
Time of nidification.—IV-V ; May. 
Mr. Seebohm says :—‘‘ The nest is placed in a variety of 
positions—hidden under a bush or in thick grass or sedge ; 
far away from water in the forest or among the corn; any- 
where and everywhere where a hidden retreat can be found. 
At Riddagshausen, near Brunswick, I found a nest on the 
flat mossy margin of one of my friend Nehrkorn’s lakes, 
without the slightest cover of any kind ; and Lord Walsing- 
ham showed me a nest near one of his lakes in South 
Norfolk in short heath. The nest is made very deep, and 
is lined with dead grass and leaves, to which is afterwards 
added plenty of down. The number of eggs varies from 
eight to twelve, or sometimes fourteen.” —(Hist. Brit. Birds, 
vol. iii., p. 552.) 
Mr. Harting says that ‘“ the Garganey, better known as 
the Summer Teal and Crick, or Cricket Teal, from its 
peculiar note, is an annual visitant to this country in 
spring, and in the eastern counties especially may be said 
to breed regularly.” After speaking of its breeding in 
Norfolk, he adds, “In the adjoining county of Suffolk there 
is reason to believe that the Garganey nests every year in 
the marshes about Leiston, and the eggs have several times 
been found at Thorpe Mere, near Aldeburgh,” 
