1 ^ [Chap. IV, 



PAKV. 8.] 



parts, (a) in wliicli the iiumher hagged hy eacli individual 

 gun is noted, and (h) in which the total bag for all the 

 guns is classified under the ditferent species composing it. 

 (jw one of these occasions there was a Distinguished 

 Foreign Guest. "How many did you get?'' he was 

 asked at lunch. '' Forty." " Good " said the recorder, 

 ^inee good it 'icns for an unfavourable, stormy day, "What 

 kinds were they?" "Oh, the usual kinds," answered 

 the D. F. G. easily " indurlinQ twenty-five Black /Jvclc." 

 Now it was along time before the " bag" was brought in, 

 but certain suspicions which refused to be comforted liad 

 been aroused in the bosom of the recorder. On the other 

 hand, courtesy demanded that forty, as announced, should 

 be scored up to the D. F. G. The trouble, it was felt, was 

 going to begin when those "Black Duck" had to be 

 entered up in the printed columns provided for all the 

 known game birds obtainable and the whole classified 

 result tallied with grand total of the bag. And so it 

 was. The '' Black Duck " were found to be all Coots and 

 Cormorants, and they had to be put down as " errors of 

 classification " in a new and separate column to themselves. 

 But the D. F. G. never kneiv. 



A glance at the accompanying plates will be the best 

 way to visualise the general differences of shape and 

 colouring in these undesirables as against the sportsman's 

 true game, the Ducks. Generally speaking, the Ducks* 

 can be distinguished from all other Indian birds by the 

 following characters. The bill is straight and armed at 

 the edges of both chaps (mayidihUs) with a row of trans- 

 verse ridges or teeth (lamelhe) and the feet have moderate 

 or short shanks (tard) and three toes in front webbed 

 together, and a small, nearly or quite useless toe behind, 

 not connected with the front toes. The Coots and Grebes 

 (the Dabchick is the smallest of the Grebes) have beaks 

 and feet very unlike those of the Ducks, the toes* "not 

 being webbed together but provided each with a separate 

 and individual web," while the Cormorants have, besides 

 a dissimilar beak, a "hind-toe well developed and joined 

 to the front ones by an extension of the web which unites 

 these." Specially remarkable in the Ducks are the long- 

 feathers ("tertiaries ") that bridge the space between the 

 wings and the body, allowing no room for the passage of air 

 with consequent loss of power in flight at this point. 



The following peculiarities too are to be noted : — 



The Coot (Fidicn atra) has all over dark-grey or 



blackish plumage. His length is 16 inches. He is rather 



like the Ducks in his habits and he flies strongly and well 



enough, but nothing like as fast as the Ducks generally 



* Finu, " Water Fowl of India and Adia." 



