THE GADWALL. 47 
allowed by Act of Parliament for catching these birds in this 
way is from the latter end of October till February. 
“ Particular spots or decoys in the fen countries are let to 
the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum ; 
and Pennant instances a season in which thirty-one thousand 
two hundred ducks, including teals and widgeons, were sold in 
London only, from ten of these decoys near Wainfleet, in Lin- 
colnshire. Formerly, according to Willoughby, the ducks 
while in moult, and unable to fly, were driven by men in boats, 
furnished with long poles, with which they splashed the water 
between long nets, stretched vertically across the pools in the 
shape of two sides of a triangle, into lesser nets placed at the 
point ; and in this way, he says, four thousand were taken at 
one driving in Deeping Fen; and Latham has quoted an 
instance of two thousand six hundred and forty-six being 
taken in two days near Spalding, in Lincolnshire; but 
this manner of catching them while in moult is now pro- 
hibited.” 
THE GADWALL. (Anas strepera.) 
PLATE LXXI.—Fie. 1. 
Le Chipeau, Briss. vi. p. 359, 8, pl. 33, fig. 1.—Buff. ix. 187.—Pl. enl. 958.—Arct. 
Zool. p. 575.—Lath. Syn. iii. p. 515.—Peale’s Musewm, No. 2750. 
CHAULIODUS STREPERA.—SWAINSON? * 
Anas strepera, Linn. Syst. i. p. 200.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. p. 859.—Bonap. Synop. 
p. 383.—Canard Chipeau, ou Ridenne, Temm. Man. ii. p. 887.—Gadwall or 
Grey, Mont. Ornith. Dict. i. and Supp.—Bew. Br. Birds, ii. 350.—Gadwall, 
Selby’s Illust. Br. Ornith. pl. 51.—Anas (Chauliodus) strepera, North. Zool. 
il. p. 440.—Genus Chauliodus, Swain. Journ. Royal Instit. No. iv. p. 19. 
Tuis beautiful duck I have met with in very distant parts 
of the United States, viz., on the Seneca Lake, in New York, 
* This beautiful duck is remarkable in presenting, next to the 
shovellers, the greatest developement of lateral lamine of the bill ; it 
is also an expert diver. 
In Britain they are rare, but appear more common in the lower 
