INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 617 



water. It gets off the water badly, fluttering about and rising very oblique- 

 ly; nor does it rise high when well on the wing, but generally flies with- 

 in a few yards of the surface of the water, getting on considerable pace 

 when once fairly away. It requires straight shooting to kill outright, 

 for it is a hardy, close-pbimaged little bird, and will take a lot of shot. 

 Hit, but not killed, it is very far from caught, for it is a wonderful 

 diver ; quick and strong under water, it makes for the dense under- 

 growth m the water, where it hides, or, if dropped in the open, dives for 

 such long periods and goes so far and fast that the gunner never knows 

 where to expect it and when he may get his second barrel into it. All 

 his good qualities are, however, quite over-shadowed by the ftict that 

 when shot and caught it is no longer worth anything, for so rank and 

 coarse is the flesh that it is quite uneatable. The condemnation of the 

 White-eye as an article of food is not, however, universal ; thus Colonel 

 Irby speaks of the bird as found in Spain : *' Its flesh is not only like 

 that of the Red-headed and Red-crested Pochards, excellent eatino-, 

 but far surpasses either in that respect." Even here in India Captain 

 Baldwin once wrote : — " It is only a tolerable bird for the table." But 

 Mr. F. Finn goes one better than tolerable, and writes in the Askm :— 

 " It is said to be very poor eating, but I have found it to be palatable 

 enough." Tastes differ, however, and there may be others to agree with 

 Messrs. Finn and Baldwin, but personally 1 have found them unpalata- 

 ble in the extreme, fishy, oily and rank. 



Omnivorous like all ducks, this species probably makes its diet fully 

 three-quarters animal. Those birds which I shot in the Diyang and 

 other hill streams had all, in addition to the caddis-grubs, dragon-fly 

 larv£e and similar articles, quite a number of small fish, some of them 

 3" in length. These were all or nearly all, of the small " Millers' 

 thumb'' species so common in every hill stream. Doubtless, these 

 from their sluggish disposition and their ostrich-like habit of hiding 

 their heads under a stone and then resting in fancied security, fell a 

 very easy prey to the active White -eye. 



On land this little Pochard is quite out of his element ; he can 

 walk all right and get along well enough for purposes of slow progres- 

 sion, but he is very awkward and shuffling in his movements and 

 incapable of any appreciable increase in the speed of them even under 

 the impulse of fear, 

 i 



