THE POCHARDS. II 



they start; and Ca})ta;n Shelley states that a large flock makes 

 such a noise with their feet patting the water, that it can be 

 heard at a distance of two miles. Mr. Hume gives the follow- 

 ing interesting note on the species : — " In the water they are at 

 home; they swim with great rapidity, and dive marvellously. 

 Indeed, what becomes of them is often a puzzle ; the instant 

 that, wounded, they touch the water, they disappear, and not 

 unfrequently that is the last you see of them ; at most they 

 only rise once or twice, and then disappear for good. It is a 

 waste of time to pursue them ; if they do rise, give them in- 

 stantly a second barrel. If not, you must trust to the dogs pick- 

 ing them up in the rushes near the margin later in the day when 

 all is quiet. But even the best dogs will be baffled, and I have 

 seen a well-trained retriever, after skirmishing in weeds and 

 water for several minutes in pursuit of a wounded White-eye, 

 come out with his tail between his legs and a general crestfallen 

 appearance, clearly under the impression that, in consequence 

 of some delusion, he had been beguiled into hunting a Dab- 

 chick — a bird that from his earliest puppy-hood he had been 

 taught to consider altogether beneath his notice. 



" They are with us quite omnivorous ; no doubt their food 

 chiefly consists of vegetable matter — leaves, stems, roots and 

 seeds of grass, rush, sedge, and all kinds of aquatic herbage ; 

 but besides this I have noted at different times, amongst the 

 contents of their stomachs, delicate fresh-water shells and 

 shrimps, insects, including several species of Neuroptera and 

 Lepidoptera and their larvae, worms, grubs, and small fishes. 

 I have often, when lying up hid in the reeds, waiting for 

 more valuable fowl to come over, watched little parties of 

 them feeding in some tiny, weedy, reed-hedged opening. For 

 part of the time they swim about, nibbling at the herbage 

 or picking shells or insects off the lotus leaves ; but they are 

 continually disappearing below the surface, often reappear- 

 ing with a whole bunch of feathery, slimy weed, which all 

 present join in gobbling up. Sometimes they remain a very 

 long time out of sight, I should guess nearly two minutes (it 

 seems an age) ; but generally they do not, when thus feeding, 

 keep under more than, say from forty to fifty seconds. I fancy 

 that they feed preferentially by day; first, because when in 

 their favourite haunts, I have invariably found them, when I 



