. Indian sporting birds . as far as Oudh ;it has even strayed to the neighbourhood of Calcutta, but it isonly really common in Sind, where it may fairly be calledabundant. It is among the surface-feeders what the white-eyedpochard is among the divers, a bird of coot-like proclivities,preferring water with plenty of rushes growing in it, and gettingup, not in flocks but independently like quail ; when on thewing also, they fly low and not very fast. They will dive andhide under water with the bill out when wounded, and seemseldom to come ashore, though they walk w^ell, as might beexpected from
. Indian sporting birds . as far as Oudh ;it has even strayed to the neighbourhood of Calcutta, but it isonly really common in Sind, where it may fairly be calledabundant. It is among the surface-feeders what the white-eyedpochard is among the divers, a bird of coot-like proclivities,preferring water with plenty of rushes growing in it, and gettingup, not in flocks but independently like quail ; when on thewing also, they fly low and not very fast. They will dive andhide under water with the bill out when wounded, and seemseldom to come ashore, though they walk w^ell, as might beexpected from their light build, which they share with theAndaman and clucking teals, both good pedestrians. Whencourting the drake jerks back his head on to his shoulders ; hisnote is the usual whistle of teal drakes, while the duck feeds pretty equally on both vegetable and animal food, andagain like the white-eye, is not a good table bird. Some eggs found in a nest under a babul bush in a salt marsh * Querquedula on CO \— CO o CO o<< _lZJQLU cr LU ANDAMAN TEAL 21 on the Mekran coast are supposed to be those of this bird ; theywere taken on June 19. The certainly known eggs are creamcolour, as were these. The ordinary range of the species isfrom the Canaries and Cape Verd Islands, along the Mediter-ranean region, and through Western Asia, so that in range, aswell as colour, it rather recalls a sand-crrouse. Andaman Teal. * Nettitim albigulare. The Andaman teal, although not distinguished by Hume fromthe Australasian oceanic teal (the real gihherifrons) has, with theexception of a single specimen recorded from Burma, no doubta windblown straggler, been only found in the Andaman Islands. It would, however, be easily recognizable among our mainlandspecies, owing to its very dark brown colour, but little relievedby the pale edgings to the feathers, and the conspicuous whitepatch on the wing in front of the wing-bar, which marking isblack, green, and white, the two las
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Keywords: ., boo, bookauthorfinnfrank18681932, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
