14 JOURNAL, BO}PBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII, 



jheel und jungle." In such cases the Spotted-bill may have had the 

 company of the teal thrust upon him whether he desired it or not. 



Their haunts seem to vary much ; but probably they prefer tanks, 

 jheels and small pieces of water which are well covered with weeds ; 

 they seldom resort to large, open pieces of water. Thus in Manipur 

 I am told that the Spotted-bills do not as a rule frequent any of the larger, 

 clearer sheets of water ; and that on the Logtak it is quite a rare duck 

 when compared with the others which are found on that lake. They 

 inhabit the smaller jheels, which are surrounded near the margin by 

 iuncrle and here they may be seen all asleep, except one or two which 

 are on sentry duty near the edge. 



They are also found, though I think but rarely, on small quickly- 

 flowinf^ streams in forest. On the other hand, on some of the bigger 

 rivers they are not uncommon. Hume has " shot them several times 

 both on the Ganges and Jumna (on both of which however they 

 are rare), while on the Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus they are quite 



common." 



Woods has " shot numljers of them on the banks of the Irrawaddy 

 close to Sagaing." They are found, though not frequently, on 

 the Brahmaputra, but they have been reported to me as being 

 common on that river on the part which runs through Sadiya. I 

 have no record of their occurrence on the Megna,' Sunma, Barak, or 

 anv other of this network of rivers, though it is probable in the 

 extreme that they may l)e met with here and there on any of them. 

 It appears to be entirely a fresh-water duck, and this would be sufficient 

 to account for its comparative absence from the Sunderbunds and their 

 tidal and brackish waters. Whether it occurs on the Chulka lake, also 

 of brackish water, I cannot say. 



The Spotted-bill is, in every sense of the word, one of the finest and 

 most o-ame of our ducks. Even larger on an average than the 

 Mallard it fully rivals that bird for the table, and is, I think, more 

 uniform in its o-ood condition ; this no doubt is due to the fact that it has 

 not to overtax its strength in long migrations. 



It is a stron'T flier, though less quick in rising and not so speedy in 

 p-ettino- under way as is the Mallard. When it just rises Hume 

 compares it to an old hen, such a noise and flurry does it make, but 

 the pace it puts on, once it is fairly started, compensates for its 



