-218 THE GARGANEY OR BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
-duck to arrive in the country, and has frequently been seen 
early in August.” Mr. Reid’s remarks have been already quoted, 
(note, p. 215), and there is no doubt that with us in the north, 
while some occasionally appear earlier, considerabie flights arrive, 
as a rule, towards the close of August or early in September. 
These, however, generally pass on (even in Calcutta they are in 
the market early in October), and it is not until the latter part 
of October in the north, and well into November further south, 
that the mass of the birds have arrived. 
During December, January, and February they are compara- 
tively scarce in Upper India, but they become again plentiful in 
March, and during the first half of April, owing to the influx of 
the great bulk of the birds which wandered further south. 
Shortly after this* the great majority leave us, but in all years, 
alike in the north and south, a few birds remain well in to May. 
As I shall notice further on there are grounds for supposing that 
some few may remain to breed within our limits, but such cases 
must be quite exceptional. 
According to my experience, the Blue-winged Teal almost 
exclusively frequents good-sized broads and jhils or wide 
swamps, containing plenty of aquatic herbage. They are rare 
even on large lakes, like the Sambhar, where this is wanting ; 
they are very rare in our large rivers, and still more so on 
small village ponds.t 
I have very seldom seen them in the day feeding in fields, 
but I know that at nights they come in some parts of the 
country in such crowds into paddy fields as to destroy acres of 
* Mr. Cripps, writing from Fureedpore, remarked :—‘‘ Swarms in the cold weather 
in all the small bhils about the country. During the day they used to remain in the 
Ganges, and at night come to the interior to feed. The Ganges from my factory 
was about 20 miles. By the 16th April not a bird was to be seen, all haying 
migrated.” 
+ In this and numberless other cases, I find my experience here utterly at 
variance with what European writers have recorded. Thus Dresser says, quoting 
Baron Droste :— 
‘¢They frequent the fresh water or salty ponds and rivulets on the islands; and 
I know no instance of this duck visiting the shores. They are very tame, and soon 
get accustomed to the sight of human beings, and are satisfied with the smallest 
sheets of water. When unmolested they can be approached within a few paces 
-without flying up”’ Now, to render these remarks applicable to India, they must be 
interpreted, like dreams, by contraries. 
They never hardly frequent mere ponds or rivulets, but they are 7o¢ uncommon 
on the shores. They are never very tame, and I know no instance of their accus- 
toming themselves to the sight of human beings ; on the contrary, they persistently 
shun places which human beings closely frequent. Tiny pieces of water they 
utterly avoid. Even where no gun has ever been fired, they will not let you walk up 
within shot openly. You can stalk them easily behind bushes, cattle, &c., but let 
them see that you are a man, and they certainly will not allow you to get within 
thirty paces of them. 
I do not, for one moment, doubt the correctness of Baron Droste’s remarks, as 
vegaras his part of the world ; I only desire equal credence from European writers 
when, as in many cases has, I find, happened, I have directly traversed the statements 
of their favourite authorities. JI can only say that my remarks are the results of 
many long years’ personal observations here, and that whether in accord with what 
has been recorded elsewhere, or not, they do represent what are the facts “ere. 
