GARGANEY. 
QUERQUEDULJ CIRCU. 
Though liis colouring is unpretending, there arc few, if any, of our Wildfowl more beautifully marked than 
the drake Garganey. This species appears to have been seen and also obtained in several English counties, 
and on a few occasions in Scotland and the outlying islands; I have, however, only met with it in the 
Broad district in Norfolk. These handsome little birds are still numerous in that part of the country, 
arriving early in the spring, taking up their quarters and rearing their young in the neighbourhood of the 
largest piece of water, and making a move to a more suitable climate before cold weather sets in. On two or 
three occasions I heard of Gargancys shot in winter, but in every instance where the strangers underwent 
examination by competent judges they proved to be female AVigeon. 
My own experience wdth regard to the situation chosen by this species for its nest differs considerably from 
the statement in the last edition of A^arrcll, that “in the Broad district in Norfolk, the densest reed-beds are 
preferred.” About Ilickling Broad, where I have had ample opportunities of observing them during the 
summer, I remarked that the eggs were usually laid in the patches of rushes in the unreclaimed marshes, 
at some little distanee from the water, not a single nest having, to the best of my knowledge, ever been 
detected in a reed-bed. Now and then the birds were known to have bred among the long coarse grass 
and tufts of rushes on the dryer portion of the hills surrounding the broads, but, as a rule, they go further 
from their usual haunts. 
AVhile staying at Potter Ileigham, in the east of Norfolk, in the summer of 1883, I was sent for early on 
the morning of the 16th of June, by one of the natives of the village, who had been on his way to market and 
surprised a brood of wild Ducks in a ditch by the roadside. The weather at the time was rough and stormy, 
with rain falling in blinding torrents, and on reaching the spot, which luckily was only about a quarter of a 
mile from the farmhouse at which I w'as staying, a female Garganey was seen, standing with her neck stretched 
out, in the middle of the road. Two or three times she ran towards the ditch, which was deep and overgrown 
with brambles and wild plants, and then withdrew slowly to her former station. On searching the cover, eight 
young ducklings were soon found, and placed in a basket wrapped up in flannel, the poor little mites being wet 
and weakened by exposure to the rain and the damp grass through which they had been led. As the old bird, 
after flying round in circles over the adjoining fields, still continued to return to the road when we had left the 
spot, to take the young to the house in order that they might have better attention, I returned again and took 
up a position to watch her movements. Her actions soon led us to believe that some of the brood were still at 
large, and on again turning over the ferns and rubbish in the ditch, two more downy youngsters were secured, 
a hundred yards or so nearer to the farm than those previously obtained. It was not, however, for two or three 
hours that the poor old duck deserted the spot, returning again and again, after flying round, and alighting 
either in the fields or on the road near the ditch ; she appeared much distressed by the loss and perfectly 
regardless of danger on her own account, seldom attempting to rise on wing till approached within four or five 
