THE COTTON TEAL, 
o—-——=—_—_-—=— 
Nettopus coromandelianus, Gmelin. 
—— 
Vernacular Names.—{Girri, Girria, Girja, (Hindustani, Mahrathi) ; Gur-gurra, 
Etawah ; Ghangariel, Ghangani (Bengali) ; Bullia-hans, Dacca, Faridpur, Sylhet ; 
Lerreget- perriget, Merom-derebet, (Kole); Ade, Adla, Ratnagiri; Chick sarle haki (for 
all small ducks), AZysore ; Neer- -akee (Water-fowl) Coimbatore ; Karagat, Arakan.] 
= 
Swe. F we exclude Sind, Cutch, Kashmir and the Hima- 
® layas,all but the eastern portions of Rajputana 
and the Punjab, and the Nicobars, the Cotton Teal is 
found in suitable situations throughout the rest of 
the Empire, including Ceylon and the Andamans. 
But it is comparatively rare towards the west, 
and in Kathiawar, the westernmost district to which 
it is as yet known to extend, has only been observed at Lake 
Bullol, east of lJLimree, while even in) Gujarat 1 1s) not 
common, and in the Deccan as a whole, Mr, J. Davidson 
says, it is decidedly rare. In the Southern Konkan, which 
they visit apparently only during the cold season, Mr. G. Vidal 
says that, though they have been shot both in Ratnagiri 
itself and Chiplun, they are decidedly uncommon, In 
Malabar* they possibly do not occur at all, but they are 
not uncommon in the rest of the southern Madras Districts, 
and both Major Campbell, 26th M. N. I., and Mr. C. B. Sher- 
man, report them from Travancore. 
It affects a particular class of localities, and even well within 
its range there are large tracts unsuited to its tastes, and in 
which, therefore, it is never seen. Moreover in the drier parts of 
the country, such as the Deccan, parts of the North-Western 
Provinces, and the eastern portions of the Punjab and Rajpu- 
tana, it is to a great extent migratory. It is more or less com- 
mon in these during the rainy season, and to be met with 
there, though in diminished numbers, during the winter, but 
during the hot season it is never, or scarcely ever, seen. 
It isin the Deltaic Districts of Bengal that it has its head- 
quarters, and there it simply swarms. 
* Mr. Albert Theobald writes :— 
**T have seen them in the Coimbatore, Salem, and Tinnevelly Districts, dat not 
in Malabar. I don’t think they leave this part of the country during the dry 
weather, They breed on trees in any suitable locality.” 
