[CriAP. XI, 



57 I'AHA.. yi.] 



twelve, are not, I think, at all commonly met with, while 

 pairs and single individuals are hardly ever seen." They 

 keep more closely togetlier than any kind of Duck, dense 

 packing being very characteristic of them. 



Shoveller. — Altliough common over the major part of 

 tlie country it visits, lorites Stuart-Baker, it does not seem 

 anywhere to be found in very large numbers and may often 

 be seen in pairs or even singly. I do not remember ever 

 seeing a flock which numbered over forty, and should 

 imagine such a flock to be rare anywhere. "Never in 

 flocks," gnya II mie "always in small parties.'' They are 

 very social birds, note Stuart-Baker and Hume, and consort 

 with Teal, Gadwall and other ducks. 



Marbled Duck. — In Sind, ivrole Hume, where I had 

 abundant opportunity of observing it, T found the Marbled 

 Teal invariably associated in large parties. 



Red-crested Pochard. — In some parts of India, notes 

 Stuart-Baker, they arrive in flocks of thousands, Hume 

 write.? in one place of "flocks of many thousands, and acres 

 pi\red witli them ;*' again " I rowed into a flock of this species 

 several thousands in number.". Reid also, after sa^iag 

 that though (in the Lucknow Division) he had cone acrosg 

 them in small parties, as a rule of a dozen or so, yet " one 

 morning I came across countless numbers oa ?l jheel in the 

 Fyzabad district closely packed and covering the whole 

 surface of the water, with their red heads moving indepen- 

 dently, while the breeze kept their crests in motion ; a 

 distant spectator might have mistaken them for a vast 

 expanse of beautiful aquatic flowers."' As a general thing 

 therefore it would seem that the Red-crested Pochard likes 

 to congregate in very large flocks, and it is only when the 

 country is not very well suited fo their wants that tliey 

 split up into small parties, and, under these circumstances, 

 very small flocks and even pairs and single birds may be 

 sometimes seen. 



The Pochard. — As regards the flocks it collects in, 

 this would seem to depend almost entirely on the country 

 it visits and its accommodation in the way of water. Thus, 

 where there are huge jheels, moiasses, and lakes covered in 

 part with jungle and in part having open expanses of 

 water of some depth, free of vegetation of a heavy charac- 

 ter, they will be found in thousands ; elsewhere they will 

 be found in small Hocks, pairs and rarely single birds. 

 {Sluart-B'iker.) 



White-eyed Duck. — The flocks, lurites Stuart-Baker, 

 may number anytliing between half-a-dozen and over fifty, 

 but even of the latter number there will be but few. Then 

 again the birds lie so scattered and far apart that thej 



8 



