|(;irAi'. XlIT, 



water. This is somewhat confirmed by the fact that in 

 Cachar the natives tell me they can get at Pintails far 

 more easily than at other ducks, and it is true that they 

 do bring in more Pintails in proportion tlian they do 

 Gadwalls, Teal, etc. ; at the same time I have personally 

 found them to be the hardest to get at of all the ducks, 

 and such of my friends as have given me their experience 

 have found the same. 



Garganey. — As to whether they are wild or tame, 

 votea Shiart- Baker, opinions seem to differ very much. 

 Theobald says, <' They are not very hard to shot and are 

 easily approached behind a screen of green boughs ; 

 sometimes a paper kite made in the shape of a hawk^'and 

 flown over the tanks keeps the teal together and they will 

 not leave the tanks, though fiied at often."' ...Reid says, 

 that they are shy and wild when tliey first arrive (in 

 Lucknow), but afterwards become tamer. Hume says tliat, 

 they are never tame and generally decidedly wild. ' As far 

 as Stuart Bakers own experience goes, the Garganey is 

 one of tlie wildest of the duck tribe ; even when the 

 would-be shooter keeps behind screens, etc., they seem 

 to be very cute and to be able to discern wliat is behind 

 the screen quicker than many others of tlieir kind, 

 and they are not slow to profit by what they can dis- 

 cern ; then too they keep much to fairly open water when 

 resting. 



Shovelter. — Even on large sheets of water, sny^ Huvie, 

 when, after a tremendous fusillade, every other wildfowl 

 has temporarily quitted the lake, you will still find, as you 

 prowl round the shores to pick up tlie Snipe, continually 

 find Shovellers rising before you from the weedy shallows 

 well within shot. As a rule they are very tame and 

 can be easily approached if the least caution is taken, 

 f<iyt> Stuart-B<tker, and they have the reputation of 

 allowing repeated shots to be fired at them before a 

 flock will leave the piece of water they are fre- 

 quenting. 



Marbled Duck. — As a rule, says Hump, it does not 

 at once rise when guns are fired, as the other Ducks do, 

 bat, if by chance it is at the moment outside of the rushes 

 or similar cover in the open water, it scuttles into con- 

 cealment as a Coot would do; and, if in cover already, 

 remains there perfectly quiet until the boats push within 

 60 or 70 yards of it ; then it rises generally one at a time 

 and, even though fired at, not unfrequently drops into the 

 rushes within a couple of hundred yards. When there 

 has been a good deal of shooting on a' lake and almost all 

 the other duck and with them of course wme of these are 

 circling round and round high in the air, you still keep, 

 as you push through the reeds and rushes, continually 



9 



