INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 441 



('' Str. Feath.") speaks of them being " generally met with hi mmiense 

 numbers/' but he does not define what he means by immense. 



Most sportsmen would place the Pintail before all other Ducks. As 

 a rale they are extremely shy, wary birds and are very hard to 

 approach witbin gun shot, but one or two people have found them to 

 be quite the contrary ! Captain Baldwin says that he found it an easy 

 bird to approach even when feeding on open pieces of water. This 

 is somewhat confirmed by the fact that in Cachar the natives tell me 

 that they can get at Pintails far more easily than at other ducks, and 

 it is true that they do bring in more Pintails in proportion than they 

 do Gad walls, Teal, etc. ; at the same time I have personally found them 

 to be the hardest to get at of all the ducks, and such of my friends as 

 have given me their experience have found the same. 



In the day time they frequent large lakes and, jheels and rest in the 

 centre of wide, comparatively open pieces of water shunning such as 

 have thick cover of reeds or similar heavy jungle, yet resorting always 

 to those which have the surfiico covered with lilies aiul the smaller 

 water plants, amongst which they can lie, well concealed yet able to 

 discern at once the approach of anything to their vicinity. During the 

 night — they do not leave tbeir day quarters until very late — they visit 

 the smaller jheels and tanks, the rushy banks of nullahs and canals and 

 similar places where they feed, but the first glimmer of dawn finds 

 them on the wing once more en route to the larger waters. Big rivers 

 they do not seem to like; all down the Surma Valley the Pintail is very 

 common, but though found in numbers on the vast expanses of water, 

 quite close to the Barak, iSurma, Megna, etc., and often seen evenino- 

 and morning crossing the river high up out of range, yet I have never 

 heard of their haunting any of these rivers. 



In the same way I believe they are practically non-existent on the 

 Ganges, Indus and other large rivers. Small rivers, if of clear and quick 

 running waters, are no more pleasing to the Pintail, but small creeks of 

 almost still water, canals which have vegetation about them, are visited 

 for the purpose of food and occasionally a flock may be put up from 

 such places in the day time. 



Their food seems mainly to consist of small and fragile shellfish, but they 

 also eat a large variety of other animal matter, and also are to a certain 

 extent vegetarians. Unlike, however, the majority of the ducks, which 



