AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 175 



flight-shooting. I noticed a peculiarity in the habits 

 of this species at the sunset flight, — whilst the 

 Mallards would circle cautiously several times around 

 their feeding-place before settling, the Teal come 

 dashing in over the tops of the reeds, and the 

 Shovellers drop in quietly in small parties, the Gad- 

 walls came straight over us at a considerable height, 

 and without any preliminary circumvolution, always 

 tiu'ned suddenly and came pouring in from the 

 direction opposite to that of their first approach. At 

 the feeding-hour the Gadwall is very noisy, the call 

 of the male being a sharp shrill rattling note con- 

 tinually repeated, whilst the female responds with a 

 "quack" resembling that of the Wild Duck. The 

 nest of this bird is always placed on dry ground, and 

 is composed of dead sedge and flags, thickly lined 

 with grey down ; the average complement of eggs is 

 about eleven. I always looked upon the Gadwall as 

 one of the best Ducks in Europe for the table, but I 

 have been told that it is held in low estimation by 

 British sportsmen in India, where it is locally common 

 during the cold season. A considerable number of 

 these birds are sent alive to the London markets 

 from the Dutch decoys in the first three months of 

 the year, but I am not aware that many are bred in 

 Holland. The Gadwall is easily reconciled to cap- 

 tivity and breeds freely in the circumstances of that 

 condition. 



Whilst employed in the revision of these notes for 

 the present issue an adult male Gadwall was 

 brought to me alive, taken upon our decoy on 

 December 13, 1894. 



