Id 



[Chap. V, 

 PARA. 14.1 



plains of Noitheni Iiulia of the various Duck. These 

 times will, of coarse, vary very much with the nature 

 of the seasons in India and according to localiW. 

 "As welcome as on tlie mountains the feet of liim 

 who bringeth glad tidings " (thus does Col. Tickell, an 

 old-world ornithologist and nature-lover, do justice to the 

 sportsman's feelings at the beginning of the shooting 

 season) "are tlie first fliglits of the Water Fowl which 

 announce to tlie nearly exhausted European the approach 

 of the delicious ' cold season ' of India. Riding slowly 

 across the open meadows or the treeless uplands, now and 

 then breathing his Arab and his ' long dogs ' in a spurt 

 after a " lomree " (fox) as it returns from its night 

 rambles to ' earth ' and inhaling witli cheered spirits 

 the cold breezes of early morning, the liorseman sees 

 across tlie dappled sky long lines of clamorous Greese or 

 swift-flying Duck hurrying up from the horizon and 

 passing overhead, as if fraught with messages of comfort 

 and encouragement from the colder regions to the parched 

 torrid zone. Some pass grandly overhead, mere specks 

 and lines far up in the blue vault, bound to distant waters 

 further south ; others with a satin rustle of tlieir rapid 

 wings cleave the air so closely by tliat the observer dis- 

 cerns the species as they rusli past and recognises familiar 

 forms associated witii recollections of snowy moors and 

 ice-bound pools 'at homo ' in far England." 



The dates are mainly based on Hume. It is a curious 

 point that many of the species that arrive earliest, like 

 the Common Teal and Gadwall, also stay the latest and 

 vice versa, the Pintail, which rarely arrives before Novem- 

 ber, lieing seldom seen after the first of April. 



* N oTK.— riiitail hin o been sliot in ihc Western Panjab as euily 

 a« the 2nd October and aa late as the Gth April. 



