f Chap. XI. 



INDIVIDUAL NOTES ON SPECIES. 



Spotbill. — Usually met with in pairs or small parties, 

 says Hume, but, where numerous, they may occasionally 

 be seen in comparatively large flocks. Personally, I do 

 not remember ever seeing more than a dozen of them 

 together ; and, tliough I have found from fifty to a hundred 

 on a large lake like tlie Manchai-, or the Najafgarh in tlie 

 pre-drainage time, they have invariably been dotted about 

 the lake in pairs, or in families (as I take it), of from 

 three to ten individuals. Often, snya Stunrt-Baher, it is 

 found singly or in pairs, and the flocks seldom number 

 much over a dozen, though in rare instances they run up 

 too as much as forty. Indeed Major Mclniov as quoted 

 by Hume, had frequently observed flocks of at least a 

 hundred, and these he Imd seen both on the wing and at 

 rest. If they ever associate with other ducks, Hume says, 

 they give the preference to Teal or Shovellers, and "Woods 

 writes to me, "I have often seen an old solitary Spotbill 

 piloting a flock of Teal across RJheel and jungle. In such 

 cases the Sv)otbill may have had tlie company of Teal 

 thrust upon liim whether he desired it or not. 



Mallard. — Karely seen in large flocks, says Hiirne, and 

 almost invariably in small knots of three to ten in number, 

 or towards the close of the season in pairs. 



Garhv'ilL-^ In rivers and in small pieces of water, vrites 

 HuviP, the Gadwall commonly occurs in small parties or 

 from three to a dozen, but in large lakes I have seen them 

 in flocks of several hundreds. They are very sociable 

 birds, and may be found in company witli every des- 

 cription of Water Fowl ; even amongst Greese, who com- 

 monly keep all the smaller Ducks at arms length, I have 

 seen pairs of Oadwall swimming about unmolested. 



Common Teal. — Teal, sorites Stuari-Baher, are ex- 

 tremely variable in the numbers in whicli they 

 collect. Often they may be seen singly or in pairs, 

 and at the same place flocks may be seen numbering 

 hundreds, even thousands. The largest flocks appear to 

 be met with in Sind and the north of the North West 

 Provinces and the Panjab, and perhaps Northern Rajpu tana. 

 In these places they are to be seen literally in flocks of 

 many hundreds and frequently of thousands. On the 

 Sunderbunds I think I have seen as many as five hundred 

 in a flock ; in the famous Chilka Lake I have been told of 

 their rising in vast flocks which must have been nearly 

 a thousand strong, and from other parts ot India reports 

 are given of flocks numbering hundreds. The most 

 common-sized flocks overall their range may be somewhere 

 betw'een twenty and forty, and in Southern India, i.e., 

 from Mysore to Ceylon, anything over the latter number is 



