NOTES ON THE WATERS OP WESTERN INDIA. 109 



knock them clown with his goose. Contrariwise, the late snipe in the 

 British Isles, birds with such strong family affections that they 

 marry on the spot instead of going to Norway and Eussia to do it, 

 are almost unwholesome. 



To return to our Indian ducks. These mostly breed from July or 

 August, and at Christmas they have hardly yet recovered from their 

 domestic exertions. But by April and May they have fully regained 

 condition, and the young birds have acquired their full size, or nearly. 

 The first in rank of the migrant ducks is that very eccentric bird, the 

 flamingo. It is likely enough that some readers may be surprised 

 at my calling it a duck at all. However, if any gentleman in that 

 frame of mind will shoot a flamingo, and then compare its feet and 

 the inside of its bill with those of the nearest duck, he will probably 

 begin to admit that there is some reason for doing so. If the experi- 

 ment is followed up by keeping it fifty or sixty hours in its feathers, 

 {ducking it, and roasting it, he will probably become a convert. 

 Skinned birds, and especially birds kept after skinning, taste very 

 different from those simply plucked. A skinned teal, for instance, is 

 quite unrecognizable. 



Our cooks have an execrable habit of plucking birds many hours 

 before they cook them, which is fatal to all flavour, the victims get 

 dried up to leather. Game, and even poultry, should be drawn as soon 

 as oossible after death, but in hot climates the feathers should not 

 come off till the last moment. They prevent evaporation and keep 

 off insects. Of course, all this does not apply to game of which the skins 

 are to be saved as specimens. The sooner the skin is off, the better for 

 this purpose ; but then the carcases had better be used up in soup 

 except with a few coarse birds eaten only for want of better, as "a 

 change on the everlasting mutton and moorghie. 1 ' Of these are the 

 bald coot, the Brahminy duck and the " beefsteak birds " and ibises 

 (commonly called curlews). Sand grouse ought to be kept in their 

 skins, but skinned just before cooking. 



To return to our flamingo, he is only found in our present province 

 on a few large tanks and rivers, and does not breed here. It seems 

 to be very uncertain when he does breed, but the first flocks fly 

 southerly on the Indus in September, like those of other migrant 

 ducks. The flamingo rarely swims, but will sometimes do so on a 

 tank or river rather than take the trouble of flymg from one sand 

 bank to another. On one occasion I shot two of a flock which lit and 

 swam in three fathoms of salt (and rather rough) water on one of 



