[Chap. \ ill, 



64 



restiiip;, two or throe sliots may be obtained at the same 

 flock. In this way on large sheets of water, a good bag 

 may b(^ made before the birds get seared and leave altoge- 

 ther, or else rise far out of shot. Nowhere in Bengal 

 have I found Teal to be of a very confiding nature, but 

 that they are so in other parts of tlieir Indian habitat 

 is well known. Hume writes : " They are as a rule, 

 when near met with villages, excessively tame — too 

 tame to render shooting them possible, unless you 

 really require them for food. Not only will they let 

 you walk up to them when they are on a village pond, as 

 close as you please, but when you have fired at them and 

 killed two or three, the remainder after a short flight will 

 again settle, as often as not well within shot. Nay, at 

 times, though fluttering a good deal and looking about as 

 if astonislied, they will not rise at all at the fii'st shot, des- 

 pite the fact that some of their comrades are lying dead 

 before them." They stand a fair amount of s])Ot unless hit 

 well forward, when a single pellet of No. G or 7, or even 

 No. 8, may suffice to bring the bird to bag. (Stuart- 

 Baker.) 



Wigeon. — They vary very much in being wild or the 

 reverse, says Sluart-Balcer, but, taking them everywhere 

 in comparison with other ducks they may be said to be 

 cute, wary birds, but failing short in this respect of many 

 of their kind. What adds too to the ease of getting shots 

 at them is their habit of feeding almost throughout the 

 day, their feeding taking them mucii to the edges of the 

 jheels and lakes, where they remain amongst the reeds and 

 vegetation. This of course hides the stalker and the 

 stalked, and many shots may be olitained at Wigeon by 

 walking round the borders of a lake, whilst most of the 

 duck are away in the middle of the water, unapproachable 

 except by boat, and often not by that. Not as liard 

 to bring down as the Garganey or Common Teal, for 

 they are less densely plumaged and can carry far less 

 lead. 



Pintail. — They are shy and wary, writes Hume, and 

 leave a jheeX almost at the first shot, or, if they do hesitate 

 to change their quarters, circle round and round high out 

 of shot. There is no driving them backwards and for- 

 wards from one piece of water to another, or one part of 

 a lake to another, over sportsmen concealed behind screens 

 or in rush clumps. You may kill a brace or so, but, directly 

 they begin to find that shooting is going on in earnest, 

 off they go, probably not to alight again for several miles. 

 As a rule, says Stuart-Baker, they are extremely shy, 

 wary birds, and are very hard to approach within gun-shot, 

 but one or two people have found tliem to lie quite the 

 contrary. Captain l^aldwin says that he found it an easy 

 bird to approach even when feeding on open pieces of 



