182 THE GADWALL. 
now and then breathing his Arab and his ‘long dogs’ in 
a spurt after a ‘lomree,’ as it returns from its night’s rambles 
to ‘earth, and inhaling with cheered spirits the cold breezes 
of early morning, the horseman sees across the dappled sky 
long lines of clamorous Geese or swift-flying Ducks, hurrying up 
from the horizon and passing over head, as if fraught with 
messages of comfort and encouragement from the colder 
regions to the parched torrid zone. Some pass grandly over- 
head, mere specks and lines far up in the blue vault, bound to 
distant waters further south; others with a satin rustle of their 
rapid wings, cleave the air so closely by, that the observer 
discerns the species as they rush past, and recognises familiar 
forms associated with recollections of snowy moors and 
ice-bound ponds ‘at home’ in far England.” 
Of all our welcome winter visitants few are earlier, and none 
come to us in greater numbers than the Gadwall. Further 
south Wigeon—with us by no means plentiful—are more 
numerous ; but in Upper India there are, as arule, more Gadwall 
in the bag after a good day’s sport than any other species of 
duck, 
They arrive in the Himalayas during the latter half of 
September, and gradually extend southwards; few reach the 
plains (they are earlier in the submontane districts) before the 
latter half of October; and in Sindh and further south it is 
usually November before they are seen in any numbers. In 
the south they leave by the end of March or early in April ; 
further north they are somewhat later (it depends a good 
deal on the season), and both in Sindh and the Western and 
North-Western Punjab, they are frequently shot during the 
first week in May. 
They are, I think, essentially fresh-water birds, (I have never 
seen them really on the sea coast,) but having secured fresh 
water, they do not seem to have much preference as to locality, 
and you find them equally in the largest rivers and the smallest 
hill streams, in huge lakes and small ponds, in open water (as 
at the Sambhar lake) where not a weed or rush is to be seen, and 
in tangled swamps, where there is barely clear water enough to 
float a walnut. 
In rivers and in small pieces of water, the Gadwall commonly 
occurs in small parties of from three to a dozen, but in large 
lakes I have seen them in flocks of several hundreds. 
On rivers they are generally to be seen snoozing on the 
bank during the day, and then they commonly leave these 
towards sunset for feeding grounds inland. In broads they 
keep, if at all disturbed, well out of gunshot towards the 
centre, sometimes in clear water, more often skulking in low 
water weeds ; but in unfrequented places, they may, even during 
the day-time, be found walking on the shore or paddling in the 
shallows round the edges of the tank, feeding busily with 
