616 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SCIETY, Vol. XII. 



being still found, however, in considerable numbers throughout Assam, 

 Manipur, Cachar, Sylhet, Chittagong and Southern Burma. 



As it wanders South, it appears to get more and more rare ; but it is 

 not easy to trace its extreme southern limit. To the extreme West 

 Vidal got it at a place called Khed, in Ratnagiri, about latitude 17°-4'. 

 Mr- P. M. Allen records having shot a pair of White-eyes in the 

 Nizam's territory at Nalgonda, latitude 17°-22'. Then to the East coast 

 Hume says, " I have failed to trace it ; it is not recorded from . . . 

 one of the Madras districts south of Mysore and the town of Madras." 

 This would infer that he has had records of it as far South as Madras, 

 but I cannot find any traces of them. In Burma it has only been 

 recorded as far South as Arrakan. 



The kind of water preferred by the Pochard is that also which 

 forms the favourite resorts of the AVhite-eyed Pochard. I have, how- 

 ever, found them in all and any sort of water. Wandering up and 

 down the hill streams, clear deep pools and rushing torrents of shallow 

 water following one another in rapid succession, I have often disturbed 

 small flocks of the White-eye, and I have equally often found a pair or 

 a small flock in the very dirtiest and smallest pools of stagnant water. 



Where there are wide stretches of water, clear here and there in 

 patches, but for the most part covered with water-plant and with shores 

 thickly lined with reeds, &c., the White-eye assembles in vast numbers, 

 but not in very large flocks. These (the flocks) may number anything 

 between half-a-dozen and over fifty, but even of the latter number 

 there will be but few. Then, again, the birds lie so scattered and far 

 apart that they keep rising in ones and twos, giving the impression that 

 they are only consorting in pairs or a very small flock and, of course, 

 many single birds and pairs are really met with. 



As showing the numbers in which these ducks are found in suitable 

 localities, it is worth notice that, in the Asian, a bag of ducks was re- 

 corded as having been shot in Chapra, which contained 385 duck; but 

 out of this no less than 187 were White-eyes. 



No doubt, their manner of rising is a very admirable trait for any 

 duck to possess, and the White-eye has other good points as well. As a 

 rule, it is a decidedly tame bird, still lingering in amongst the reeds and 

 other jungle long after nearly all other ducks have left, rising well within 

 shot when disturbed and often not going far before again seeking the 



