114 NATURAL HISTORY. 



in April, and by May not one of them has a feather fit to be seen. The 

 moult is often so complete that the bird altogether loses the power of 

 flight, and must remain on a favourite pool for some days. Like all the 

 tribe, it can scarcely move at all on land. It is generally easy to see 

 before firing whether a bird is in good plumage or not. If it is sitting 

 out of the water, or flying, the silvery plumes and similar coloration 

 of the wing are pretty visible, and when it is in the water, showing 

 only the neck and head, or flying overhead, the neck tells an 

 old plume -hunter whether he should spend his shot. In good 

 specimens the neck looks almost white ; in moulting birds it is much 

 darker. 



It is a mistake to shoot a snake-bird sitting, as the plumes are 

 likely to be damaged by shot. He should be taken in the water, 

 when he shows only the head and neck, or on the wing from below. 

 In the former case small shot should be used, as the thin neck forms 

 a very narrow target. 



Of fresh-water reptiles we have in the Deccan region, first of all, certain 

 water tortoises or terrapins, easily distinguished from land tortoises 

 by their webbed feet, and from the fresh-water turtles by their " tortoise- 

 shell" back and breast-plates, and by having either five or four 

 visible claws on the fore feet and always four on the hind feet. 

 Curiously enough, while the American terrapins are of most delicate 

 flavour, ours are uneatable, smelling foully, as is indicated by their 

 untranslatable Mahratta name. They are carnivorous, and are 

 sometimes caught on a live bait, or on a worm, or bit of raw meat. 

 Some that I kept in confinement refused carrion. The natives often 

 put them in wells, especially Em.ijs trijuga^ the commonest 

 species, and call them, as well as all other tortoises, and turtles, 

 lt Kasaw." All " Ka'saws " are supposed to be poor relations of the 

 great turtle, who upholds the world, and are accordingly respected 

 by the more pious Hindus, and an image of a tortoise is often to be 

 seen on the floor of a temple. This has something to say to the 

 putting of them in the wells, but they are useful there as scavengers, 

 and as mortal enemies of the fresh- water crabs ( Telphusidce), which 

 do a great deal of harm to wells by burrowing in the foundations. 

 They cannot, I think, do much in the way of catching live fish, for 

 I have known them to be in wells with fish for many months without 

 any diminution in the number of the latter, though there was 

 apparently no other food. Probably frogs, crabs, mollusca, and 

 insects form their chief diet; and it may be, as I shall show 



