A JHIL OUT OF SEASON 39 



which visit the jhil in the " season." One of the 

 saruses, hke the heroine of the " penny dreadful," 

 has drawn himself up to his full height, and his grey 

 form, relieved by patches of red and white on the 

 head and neck, shows well against the background of 

 dark foliage. His mate is apparently sitting down. 

 This probably indicates the presence of a nest. To 

 discover this we must wade and chance an occasional 

 immersion to the waist. Risking this, w^e advance, to 

 the disgust of the saruses, who set up a loud trumpet- 

 ing. Sometimes the parent birds attack the intruders. 

 Such conduct is, however, rare. Usually the sarus in- 

 dulges in Lloyd - Georgian methods of meeting an 

 enemy. 



The nest in question is a pile of rushes and water- 

 weeds, rising a couple of feet from the water and large 

 enough for a man to stand upon. It contains two 

 whitish eggs faintly blotched with yellowish brown. 



Viewed from the margin, the jhil appears to be 

 utterly devoid of waterfowl ; but in this case things 

 are not what they seem. Before we have waded 

 far in the direction of the nest of the sarus, numbers 

 of duck and teal which were hidden by the sedges and 

 grasses get up and fly to another part of the jhil. The 

 first birds to be disturbed are some cotton-teal [Netto- 

 pus coromandelianus) . As these consist of a flock of 

 eight or ten they are obviously not nesting. The cotton- 

 teal drake is a bird easy to identify. Its small size, 

 white head, and black necklace are unmistakable, and 

 the white margins to the wings are very conspicuous 

 during flight. 



