in the Canaries, it breeds. So it does likewise in Southern
Spain, but in none of these latter localities do many appear to
remain for the winter, besides these places it has been occasionally
observed in Sardinia, Sicily, the Ionian Islands, and
(?) the Albanian Coast.
Its known range is therefore very restricted, and a zone lying
between the 20th and 40th degrees North Latitude, and stretching
from 200 West, to 95° Last Longitude, would entirely cover
it, while in fully half this zone it has not as yet been observed.
Favier thinks that this Duck winters in the interior of Africa,
and it may do so j but my impression rather is that the migration
is cast and west, the birds for the most part summering
and breeding in the latter and wintering with us in the east.
I DO NOT know exactly when this species arrives. Doig
says that they arrive in November and leave in April, but this
is on the Eastern Narra, towards the extreme eastern limit of
its normal range. In the Shikarpur Collectoratc sportsmen
and fowlers said that a few might be seen earlier, but that
the great bulk appeared during the latter half of October.
But at Kurrachec Captain Butler shot a young bird that had
clearly only recently left the nest on the 27th of September!
In Sindh, where I had abundant opportunities of observing it,
I found the Marbled Teal invariably associated in large parties.
Its favorite haunts were broads, thickly grown with rush, in
which it fed and sported, comparatively seldom shewing itself
in the open water. As a rule it does not at once rise when
guns are fired as the other ducks do ; but, if by chance, it is at
the moment outside of the rushes or similar cover in the
open water, it scuttles into concealment, as a Coot would do, and
if in cover already, remains there perfectly quiet, until the boats
push within 60 or 70 yards of it; then it rises, generally one
at a time, and even though fired at, not unfrequently again
drops into the rushes within a couple of hundred yards. When
there has been a good deal of shooting on a lake, and almost
all the other ducks, and with them of course some of these
arc circling round and round, high in the air, you still keep, as
you push through the reeds and rushes, continually flushing
the Marbled Teal, and the broad must be small, or the hunting
very close and long continued to induce all the Marbled Teal
to take wing. Of course where there is little cover (though
there you never meet with this duck in large numbers) they
rise and fly about with the other ducks; but their tendency in
these respects is rather coot-like than duck-like. Individuals
may take wing at the first near shot, but the great majority of
them stick to cover as long as this is possible ; and on two
occasions I saw very pretty shooting, boats in line pushing up
a wide extent of rush-grown water, and the Marbled Teal
rising every minute in front of us at distances of sixty or
seventy yards, like Partridges out of some of our great Norfolk
turnip fields; here and there a Shoveller or a White-eyed
Pochard, both of which, when disturbed, cling a good deal to
cover, would be flushed ; but there was not one of these to ten
of the Marbled Teal.
This species is not amongst first class ducks for the table.
It ranks, I should say, little above the Shoveller and the Whiteeyed
Pochard, and after obtaining a goodly array of specimens,
we never shot it—first class Ducks, Gadwall, Mallard, and
Pintail as well as the Pochard (Fuligula ferind) and Common
Teal being always available.
The flight of this species, though Teal-like, is less rapid and
flexible, (if I may coin an expression to represent the extreme
facility with which that species turns and twists in the air) than
that of the Common Teal. It more nearly resembles that of
the Gargancy, but is less powerful, and less rapid even than that
of this latter species. There is something of the Gadwall in it, but
it wants the ease of this. It flics much lower too, and, as already
mentioned, much more readily resettles after being disturbed.
I have hardly ever seen them swimming in the open, and in the
rushes they make of course slow progress. When wounded, they
dive, but for no great distance, and then persistently hold on
under water in any clump of rush or weed, with only their bills
above water. I have never seen them on land in a wild state,
but some captured birds, whose wings had been clipped, walked
very lightly and easily ; and, though they had been but a few days
in confinement, they were very tame and could, I should imagine,
be easily domesticated.
In Spain they are described as very wary, and there they seem
to frequent open water ; here they avoid this latter as a rule,
and are, I should say, amongst the tamer of our ducks.
Their food is very varied here. Favier says that in Tangicrs
they feed on winged insects ; in Sindh the major portion of
their food consists of leaves, shoots, rootlets, corms and seeds of
aquatic plants, intermingled with worms, fresh-water shells,
insects of all kinds, and their larvae. I believe I found a small
frog in the stomach of one, but it is not noted on the tickets of
any of the specimens now in the Museum, and I cannot be quite
sure.
Lord Lilford, an extremely careful observer, says that they
utter a low croaking whistle; but I am sure I am correct in saying
that they utter also a distinct, but rather hoarse, quack ; time
after time before a duck has been flushed, amidst the babel of
sounds that rises in the rushes as you first begin to push through
them on some unfrequented and unpoached broad, I have
singled out their note and correctly foretold that in such or such
a direction there were a lot of Marbled Teal.
As a whole I consider them poor, rather sluggish ducks, very
much disposed to take life easy, and in a dolee far niente style,