MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 371 



gunshot from the bank. One female shot contained about 8 or 10 email 

 fish 2" to 3" in length. Both birds on this part of the river are really far 

 from shy, but this is not surprising, being practically in Cooch Behar where I am 

 told game is preserved and every other native does not carry a gun. Even the 

 Buddy Sheldrake, that cutest of birds, will here allow a fairly near approach 

 in a native boat if one only talks, and does not pretend to be more than the 

 ordinary boat load of people that they are so accustomed to see passing up 

 and down the river all day and every day. The same holds good with regard 

 to the Goosander, which will allow one to get within 25 or 30 yards, and even 

 then may be seen with head or bills resting on their backs or preening them- 

 selves (this during the heat of the day) ; a nearer approach sets tbem swimming 

 as a rule up stream ; any peculiar silence in the boat or an attempt to stop 

 or turn directly towards them, puts them at once on the wing. Skittering 

 along the water for some little distance and then flying low over it, 6 or 8 

 feet, perhaps less, they will, if not fired at, alight again at the next rapid or 

 broken water. Their flight is, to me, strong and noisy, the whistling of their 

 wings being distinctly heard as they approach the boat. They will not, I 

 notice, pass directly over a boat, but pass to either side at a distance of about 

 20 or 25 yards, merely rising a very little. 



Cripples swim down stream, the current seeming too strong for badly winged 

 birds to make much headway against ; when hard pressed their diving is rapid 

 and constant, varied by rapid rushes along the surface, they go under at the 

 proverbial " flash," and it is surprising the time they keep down and, helped 

 by the current, the distance they travel. 



I have not been brave enough to try the flesh, but my Sonthal servants 

 and a Christian Baboo, however, have ; the former say that the Cormorant is 

 preferable, the latter that he succeeded in making the 2nd bird I gave quite 

 nice — " no fishy ' — by cooking it with lime (chunam) and many other strange 

 and wonderful ingredients. 



The name amongst the Bengalies on the Gadadhar for this duck is " Pattee 

 hans." I do not know if they apply this to any other species besides, but 

 give it for what it is worth, as few vernacular names for this bird seem to 

 be known. 



All the specimens I have got are fully adult birds in perfect plumage. 



A. M. PRIMROSE. 

 Mornai Tea Estate, Tamarhak P.O. 



Gaukipur, Assam, 



25th January, 1905. 



No. XX— TROUT AND OTHER FISH AND FISHING IN CEYLON. 



In the Fishing Gazette of November 5, 1 suggested that it would be very inter- 

 esting to know how our friends in Ceylon were getting on with their trout 

 stocking and preserving efforts. In reply to this Mr. R. A. G. Festing, one of 

 the members of the Ceylon Fishing Club, very kindly sends me the following 



