390 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



from dry ground, however, its first movements are rather clumsy 

 and laboured. It not only swims lightly, sitting well out of 

 the water, but dives readily when wounded. The food of the 

 Garganey is chiefly of a vegetable nature inland, but on the coast 

 an animal diet is more usual. It consists of the buds, leaves, 

 shoots, seeds, and roots of various aquatic plants, and in India of 

 rice, both wild and cultivated ; insects and their larvae, frogs, 

 worms, mollusks, and crustaceans. The Garganey is for the most 

 part a night feeder, and at such times it has been known to visit 

 rice-fields in such numbers as to destroy acres of the crop in a 

 few hours. The call-note of the Garganey is a harsh quack, and 

 is common to both sexes ; but during the breeding season the 

 drake makes a harsh Rail-like crrick. It is not a garrulous bird 

 when in flocks. The flesh of this Duck is not very palatable, even 

 when the bird has been obtained under the most favourable 

 conditions as to diet. 



Nidification. — The Garganey is a rather late breeder for a 

 southern species, and its eggs are seldom laid before the end of 

 April or the first half of May. The nest is placed in a great 

 variety of situations, very often in places similar to those selected 

 by the Teal, It is as often as not some distance from water, and 

 has been found in open forests and amongst growing corn. 

 Usually it is built on the ground amongst tall, thick grass or 

 sedge, or in low heath. The nest is made of dry grass, dead 

 rushes, leaves, and other vegetable refuse, warmly lined with down. 

 The eggs are from eight to fourteen in number, and vary from 

 cream-white to buffish white in colour. They measure on an 

 average i"8 inch in length by i'35 inch in breadth. Down tufts 

 small and brown with long white tips. Incubation, performed by 

 the female, is said by Naumann to last from twenty-one to twenty- 

 two days. Only one brood is reared in the year, and the female 

 takes the entire charge. 



Diagnostic Characters.— (Nuptial plumage), Anas, with the 

 mantle unvermiculated, with the wing coverts blue, and with the 

 under tail coverts white spotted with dark brown (adult male) ; 

 with no metallic alar speculum, and the wing about 7 inches long 

 (adult female). Length, 15 to 16 inches. 



