108 NETTAPUS COROM AN DELI ANUS 



Voice. One of the characteristics of the Goose Teal is its very unusual voice, 

 which is heard commonly, especially when on the wing. In fact, according to E. W. 

 Oates (1883), the note is uttered only during flight. The birds are especially noisy 

 during the breeding season and toward evening, when active on the wing. Observers 

 are so hopelessly at variance in their description of the note that it is practically im- 

 possible to convey an adequate idea of it. There can be no doubt that a number of 

 the native names are onomatopoetic, imitations of the bird's note. The call is de- 

 scribed by Hume and Marshall (1879) as a peculiar sort of "sharp, short, chuckling 

 cackle, which they sometimes utter very frequently, at others very seldom," without 

 there being any apparent reason for this. In general, however, they appear to be 

 quite silent when undisturbed. Tickell, quoted by these authors, remarks that in 

 the Koli name of the bird (Merom-derebet) the "Merom" signifies goat, and that the 

 bleat of that animal is not unlike the voice of the Goose Teal. The soldiers of India 

 have long called the bird "Fixed Bayonets" because its note ludicrously resembles 

 those words. A very recent writer (Wait, 1917) likens the call to the words quacky 

 duck, quacky duck. The tracheal bulb is absent in the male and unlike many other 

 ducks the male has a loud note, while the female does not seem capable of uttering 

 anything beyond a squeaking note. 



Food. The food of this species is various, consisting chiefly of rice grains, espe- 

 cially the seed of the wild rice, as well as of shoots of various aquatic plants, in 

 addition to worms, water insects and their larvse. Occasionally they may eat small 

 fish or fresh-water crustaceans (Hume and Marshall, 1879). * 



Courtship and Nesting. Throughout the greater part of India the breeding 

 season coincides with the summer rains, that is, it falls chiefly in July and August, 

 of necessity varying greatly in different places on account of the wide differences in 

 the onset of the rains. In the north part of the Malay Peninsula, Kelham (1882) 

 found it breeding in June. In Ceylon the breeding season is quite distinct, coming in 

 the early months of the year (January to March), and Wait (1917) even speaks of a 

 second nesting period in August! In the Lower Yangtse valley again, Styan (1891) 

 found young, so he says, flying about in early June, thus suggesting a very early 

 breeding season for these migratory individuals. He also took young in down early 

 in August which he considers as belonging to a second brood. It is remarkable that 

 they appear there in considerable numbers as late as early May and that young on 

 the wing were noted only a month later. 



In the Calcutta Zoological Gardens the courtship was carried on with the drake 

 bending down his bill so as to arch his neck and show off its snowy whiteness, at the 

 same time jerking open his quills to display the otherwise concealed white patch. 

 The males were gentle and did not annoy the females even when closely confined 



