210 A Visit to 0)1 Indian Jhccl. 



weather, for years past has been visited by numberless sports- 

 men. It has long been my ambition to visit this place and 

 examine its capabilities from the point of view of the Naturalist 

 rather than of the sportsman. At length the opportunity came 

 and I motored over to Gurdaspur on the nth September, 1922, 

 in company with Mr. C. H. Donald. F.Z.S. (Warden of 

 Fisheries), and spent the night there. This gave us the 

 opportunity of visiting the jheel that evening and again in the 

 early morning. The jheel is some three or four miles north 

 rf Gurdaspur, and extends for miles. We were, or course, in 

 the time at our disposal, only able to examine a very small 

 portion of it. For convenience sake I combine the observations 

 of the two visits into one. 



the approach to Keishopura is along a rough unmetalled 

 road fringed by fine Sheesham trees through a wide cultivated 

 plain, and at the time of our visit in the " Rains," when 

 vegetation is lush and green throughout the country, the jheel 

 was not noticeable until we were almost at the edge. It is 

 growing year by year more closed with weeds and rushes and 

 that pest the Water Hyacinth, and in the portion that we 

 visited no open water was visible. Belts of tall bullrushes 

 and reeds alternated with patches choked with grass and lotus. 



All the country round about was full of Yellow Wagtails 

 i'T various stages of ]^lumage. belonging to several races of 

 Motacilla flai'a. A flock of some 200 white birds, probably 

 Spoonbills (Platalca Jciicorodia) could be seen in the distance 

 flying" over the jheel. 



As the car drew up on the road at the edge of the actual 

 marsh we could see a variety of bird life close to us, so we 

 strolled down to the water's edge to enjoy this before joining 

 llie boatmen who were to pole us about the water. 



Along the grassy margin Paddy birds {Ardcola grayi) 

 were fishing, here standing motionless with head hunched into 

 shoulders, there stalking warily towards some luckless frog 

 with such a stealthy movement that it would liardly be possible 

 to be slower without being stationary. Our approach disturbed 

 tlie anglers, and they took to flight with that sudden flash of 

 white wings which comes as an evergreen surprise. I know 

 no sudden transformation of a dull bird to a conspicuous one 

 similar to it, save in the case of the Blue Roller (Coracias indica). 



