GAD WALL. 
ANAS STREPERA. 
I HAVE met with this species only on two occasions, both in the east of Norfolk. Some fourteen or 
fifteen years ago, in December, while Snipe-shooting on the old common at East Eiiston, a couple of 
pairs were seen to alight on a broad water-dyke : a long and tedious circuit was needed to obtain a 
view sufficiently close to identify them with certainty, and then, owing to the want of cover and the 
waving bogs and swamps intervening, it was impossible to get within range for a shot. On the 15th 
of December, 1881, I noticed two fowl feeding busily on the fresh green grass round a small pool on Rush 
Hills, adjoining Hickling Broad, and a glimpse of them through the glasses as they moved among the 
tufts of rushes convinced me that they belonged to this species. As the distance at which they had settled 
was only about seventy yards out on the hill from the bank up to which the punt could be worked, I 
determined to try a shot with the big gun. Having picked out and decided on the nearest creek in the 
edge of the broad, Ave sculled in and aAvaited a chance for both to come together; there was but little 
delay, as they were continually passing from one spot to another while engaged in searching for food, 
and a shot was soon fired with good effect. One was killed on the spot, and the other appeared 
utterly helpless; before we could reach the spot, however, the latter rose on wing and fluttered slowly 
across the hill to the broad, where it immediately dropped on the water and paddled for a few yards, 
when it brought up and remained, occasionally shaking its head as if choking with blood in the throat. 
Not intending to lose a chance, a cartridge charged with small shot was inserted in the large breech- 
loading punt-gun, and sculling up within about fifty yards, the unfortunate cripple was at once obtained. 
Both birds, as I anticipated, proved to be immature Gadwalls — young drakes in their first autumn 
plumage. As this species is far from common in the British Islands, and only the adults have been as 
yet figured by ornithological writers, one of these birds is represented in the Plate. There is no necessity 
to refer to the state of the plumage in these pages ; but the colouring of the soft parts was as follows, 
the notes being taken down immediately after the specimens were lifted into the boat : — Iris dark hazel ; 
a dark brown spreads halfway down the upper mandible in a line Avitb the nostril on either side, a dark line 
also encircles the nostril ; the lower portion and base of the upper mandible was a darkish yellow tint, 
and the lower mandible a paler yellow ; nail a dusky white, and the ridge round the beak yellow ; legs a 
dull yellow colour ; webs dark grey, with a yellow line on each side of the toes ; joints of toes and legs 
slightly shaded with a brown tinge, and nails a light brown tint. 
Having met with so few chances of making observations on the habits of this species, I can only 
say that these birds appear to feed on the damp spots in the marshes and also in the water-dykes, 
where they swim about searehing for food among the foliage overhanging the banks ; whether they were 
en^a^^ed in making a meal off insects or vegetation I was too far off to ascertain. 
Gadwalls breed in a few different parts of the eastern eounties where they are well protected, and are 
often seen on some of the preserved waters in small parties of ten or a dozen. 
