Indian Game-Birds and Wildfowl 



ducks, the lovely little cotton-teal, smaller than a 

 pigeon, and clad gorgeously in snow-white and 

 bronze-green, and the strange pink-headed duck, 

 with a body of glossy sepia, set off by a gaunt 

 head of glowing pink, with ruby eyes. Then 

 there is the interest of the invasion of India by 

 various estrays — the wild race of the mute swan, 

 the beautiful falcated teal of China, and of late 

 years even the king of the ducks — the Mandarin 

 duck of the same country — till recently only known 

 in India as a captive bird, imported to stock the 

 aviaries of wealthy natives. 



As to the waders, their name is legion ; the 

 common snipe is in myriads, and his relative, the 

 pintailed species, equally common ; the jack is 

 found, and more rarely the woodcock, with others 

 of which home sportsmen never make the ac- 

 quaintance. Most notable of these is the so-called 

 painted snipe, really a gaudy sandpiper, with 

 butterfly wings eyed with buff on a ground of 

 pencilled grey. This is a resident, with most 

 peculiar habits. The hen is the more beautiful 

 bird, and in all probability, as is usual in such 

 cases, leaves the sitting to the male ; both sexes 

 also have the idea that they can terrify an enemy 

 by the display of their spotted wings, accom- 

 panied by cat-like hissing. Another common 

 wader is the strange and lovely pheasant-tailed 

 jacana or water-pheasant, to my mind the most 



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