Indian Game-Birds and Wildfowl 



cormorants, which are numerous enough, prefer 

 the fresh water, where they meet the darter or 

 snake-bird, so well known to visitors to the Zoo. 

 Tropic birds and brown and white gannets haunt 

 the seas, but do not breed on Indian coasts, and 

 even gulls, as a rule, are scarce. It is true that 

 a good many kinds haunt the north-western 

 coasts, but along the shores of the Bay of 

 Bengal the brown-headed gull, a near ally of our 

 familiar friend in London at the present time, is 

 the only really abundant species. 



Terns, however, are common enough, and 

 many kinds are found, from the great Caspian 

 tern to tiny dwarfs hardly bigger than swifts, 

 the most fairy-like of all aquatic birds. Terns 

 are also common all over the inland waters, and 

 are likely to be the first Indian birds the visitor 

 sees, as they follow the ship through the Sunder- 

 bund channels, plunging in the sacred but muddy 

 stream of the Ganges, where it is stirred up by 

 the screw. This group of sea-fowl, however, are 

 found everywhere, and one of the main charac- 

 teristics of the Eastern seascape is the singular 

 absence of other sea-birds, a very great contrast 

 to the teeming and varied bird-life of the land. 



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