80 INDIAN DUCKS 



great numbers. Hume mentions having found flocks numbering 

 fully 1,200, and, I believe, refers to-the flocks he saw in Sind. 



They generally arrive in India in October, and do not get far 

 south or east until the end of November ; about Calcutta and further 

 east, they appear to arrive in early and middle December. Of 

 course everywhere they sometimes come in much earlier, and they 

 have been recorded in the north-west in September. In the same 

 way, though they all have left India, as a rule, by the end of 

 March, yet sometimes they stay far later ; for instance, only lately, 

 in the Bombay N. H. S. Journal, Colonel Unwin has reported re- 

 ceiving four "Grey Lag Geese" {A. anscr) as late as the 2nd of 

 May in Cashmere. It will be interesting, as he says, to see if they 

 do stay and breed ; but I am afraid that there is little chance of 

 it, as their breeding-haunts are not far off, and they are sure to 

 return there. Adams did state that they bred in Ladakh, but his 

 remarks have never been confirmed, and it seems he must have 

 been mistaken. 



After Hume's long notes on shooting Geese given in ' Game- 

 Birds ' it is very difticult to say anything more of any interest. 

 As every sportsman knows, they are shy, wild birds, and difticult 

 to bring to bag ; but their degree of wildness varies greatly, accord- 

 ing to how much the localities in which they reside are shot over. 

 Where many of the natives have guns, and there are also many 

 European sportsmen, the Grey Lag, and every other kind of goose, 

 is an object as worthy of a stalk as any black-buck. In such 

 places, it is little use going out to collect a bag of geese unless 

 one has really made up his mind to work the business out properly. 

 If there are any young crops of wheat, etc., in the district the 

 sportsman should be out before daybreak, and he then may, by a 

 careful crawl through grass and wheat, wet with dew and very 

 cold — it can be cold even in India — get within easy shot of the 

 birds as they feed on the young growth. If wise, he will blaze 

 one barrel into the brown as they feed and get what he can with 

 his second barrel as they rise ; if, however, he is very near indeed, 

 it is better to wait and have both barrels into them on the wing. 

 They take some time getting way on after rising, and give lots of 

 time to put in two shots, and more birds will be dropped in this 



