I l l i i W i i » L
Nettopus coromandelianus, Gmelin.
"Vernacular NameS-[Girri, Girvia, Girja, (Hindustani, MahraÜn) : Gur-gurra,
£ < f f i T G h a * g a . i e l , Ghangani (Bengali); BuUia-hans, Dacca fa, .JfurSvlhc-,
Lerreeet-perriget, Merom-derebet, (Kole); Ade, Adía, Katnaffrt; Chick sarle hala (for
all small ducks), Mysore; Neer-akee (Water-fowl) Coanbatore ; Karagat, Arakan.\
_F we exclude Sind, Cutch, Kashmir and the Himalayas,
all but the eastern portions of Rajputana
and the Punjab, and the Nicobars, the Cotton Teal is
found in suitable situations throughout the rest of
the Empire, including Ceylon and the Andamans.
But it is comparatively rare towards the west,
and in Kathiawar, the westernmost district to which
it is as yet known to extend, has only been observed at Lake
Bullol, east of Limree, while even in Gujarat it is not
common, and in the Deccan as a whole, Mr, J. Davidson
says, it is decidedly rare. In the Southern Konkan, which
they visit apparently only during the cold season, Mr. G. Vidal
says that, though they have been shot both in Ratnagiri
itself and Chiplun, they are decidedly uncommon. In
Malabar* they possibly do not occur at all, but they arc
not uncommon in the rest of the southern Madras Districts,
and both Major Campbell, 26th M. N. I., and Mr. C. B. Sherman,
report them from Travancore.
It affects a particular class of localities, and even well within
its range there are large tracts unsuited to its tastes, and in
which, therefore, it is never seen. Moreover in the drier parts of
the country, such as the Deccan, parts of the North-Western
Provinces, and the eastern portions of the Punjab and Rajputana,
it is to a great extent migratory. It is more or less common
in these during the rainy season, and to be met with
there, though in diminished numbers, during the winter, but
during the hot season it is never, or scarcely ever, seen.
It is in the Deltaic Districts of Bengal that it has its headquarters,
and there it simply swarms.
* Mr. Albert Theobald writes :—
" I have seen them in the Coimbatore, Salem, and Tinnevelly Districts, bid not
in Malabar. I don't think they leave this part of the countiy during the dry
weather. They breed on trees in any suitable locality."