5() INDIAN DUCKS 



probably found soiuetimes on the open river, but this only in the 

 cold weather and very rarely even then. As a rule, it collects in but 

 small parties, and I should think, very probably, that they are 

 composed only of the members of one family, though two or three of 

 these may now and then join together. Its fiight has been described 

 as fast and powerful, and its voice as a musical edition of the 

 mallards. 



As regards its food, there seems to Ije nothing on record bexond 

 Mr. Sliillingford's note on the gizzard of a bird he examined and 

 found to contain '" half-digested water weeds and various kinds of 

 small shells." This is, however, important, as it shows that it is 

 both an animal and a vegetarian feeder. 



jNIost writers call this a shy and wild liird, but my father (E. B. 

 Baker), who knew the bird well, did not consider it to be either a 

 particularly wary or wild bird, though of a very shy retiring dis- 

 position. I remember when I first came out to India, some forty 

 years ago, he had several of these birds' skins amongst his collection 

 of Maldah bird-skins ; but all these have been either lost or destroyed, 

 and it is now so long since I last saw them that I cannot speak with 

 certainty of the variations they showed in their plumage. 



Most of these ducks had been shot by him when shooting with 

 the late W. Eeily and some of the Shillingfords in Maldah and 

 Purneah. At the end of a day's shoot, when promiscuous firing had 

 become the order, one or two of these ducks would often be added to 

 the bag, getting up in front of the line of elephants as they worked 

 through country in which there were any small pools and jhils. 



Note to r. 53. 



Distribution.— 0"! Jauuai-y 27, 1921, a Pink-Headed Duck was shot in the nortli of 

 the Kheri district, United Provinces, by Mr. T. B. Hearsoy. 



