64 INDIAN DL'CKS 



as if trying \N'hethuL- they could vociferate harder than liy, or vice 

 vcrxd, often only to return to som_e spot within fifty or sixty yards of 

 that just left. Their flight is decidedly quick as well as fast, and 

 they dodge round corners and avoid stumps and other obstructions 

 which come in their way as they fly down the wayside drains and 

 ditches with an activity quite wonderful. In addition to their speed 

 of flight they are very densely pluniaged and tough, and carry off a 

 wonderful lot of shot for so small a bird. In the Sunderbands they 

 are found alike in the very Iiiggest and broadest stretches of water 

 as in the smallest ; only in the former they keep much to weedy 

 places with thick cover adjacent. In Rungpore, I^'urreedpore, 

 Barisal, and adjoining districts they keep more to small tanks, 

 ditches, and enclosed bhils than to the larger, more open pieces of 

 water; and this is said to I>e their practice in most other parts of 

 their hal)itat. Legge says that they frequent sometimes the flooded 

 lands close to the seashore. 



I have generally observed them in rather small flocks, seldom 

 more than about twenty, and more often under than over a dozen — 

 that is to say, in family-parties only ; other observers, however, 

 speak of finding them in larger flocks, so I suppose that often the 

 families collect together, and on one occasion in Dibrugarh I saw a 

 flock of fully 100 birds. 



The Cotton-Teal has often been unjustly accused of being unable 

 to progress on land. I do not know how this idea was started, liut 

 it is quite without reason. Mr. Finn, then of the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta, states that his birds, which he had in captivity, walked 

 perfectly well, and suggests that the idea arose from people seeing 

 wounded birds shuffling along. I think there may be, however, 

 another explanation. I had once a pair of tame Cotton-Teal which 

 were allowed to wander about where they liked, though I had to 

 keep one wing clipped, or they might have wandered too far and 

 got shot. Now, under ordinary circumstances, the two little birds 

 waddled about in complete comfort though without any undue speed. 

 When under the effects of excitement, however, whether pleasui'able 

 or frightened, they attempted to hurry themselves, they at once 

 flopped about in the most ludicrous fashion, tumbling over every little 

 obstruction they met with, and appearing as if their hind-quarters 

 were going too fast for their heads and breasls to keep in front. 



