BENDROCYCNA JAVANR'A 129 



Hume says that it seems to be a permanent resident only in 

 districts which are iveU-d rained as well as possessing other attributes 

 This is certainly not the case in many or most parts of Bengal, 

 where the birds are resident, however ill-drained the district may 

 be. 



It is quite the exception for them to be seen in any number on 

 rivers and open clean pieces of water ; the\ prefer tanks, back- 

 waters, swamps, and lakes, the latter especialh' when they are well 

 covered with weeds or vegetation. 



My first duck-shooting in India was obtained in Jessore, and 

 until then I had no idea of the vast numbers in which duck of 

 different kmds assemble. Teal of sorts were connuon, and gadwall, 

 pintail, and many ducks also, but the Whistling-Teal must have 

 numbered at least one hundred to each one of all the other kinds 

 included. It was almost incredible, the enormous flocks in which 

 they assembled : thousands and thousands flew on every side of us 

 as we shot, and the dull rumblings of their wings were heard a 

 mile away or more, even before they were disturbed. We did not, 

 of course, shoot them, but we found them a horrible nuisance, for 

 they were quite as wild as the other ducks, and whenever a careful 

 stalk had enabled us to get almost within shot of a lot of fat gad- 

 wall, or nice flock of blue-winged teal, or other much-to-be- desired 

 game, some wretched Whistling-Teal was sure to pop out of an 

 unnoticed piece of cover and make off with loud whistlings and 

 whirring wings, followed by every other duck within two or three 

 hundred yards. A few, perhaps, of the Whistling-Teal might pass 

 us within shot, but it was almost certain that the duck we wanted 

 would not. 



It is very difficult to estimate how many birds there were on 

 the Moolna Bheel when I first visited that grand shooting-ground, 

 but there must certainly have been sometimes hundreds of thousands 

 on the wing at once. 



Often when we approached some piece of water, where the reeds 

 and rushes grew so rank that we got right in before we fired, the 

 Whistlers would rise at the shot in masses before us, almost bearing 

 out that old figure of speech " darkening the air." I was greatly 

 struck on these occasions by the attitudes of the birds, which 



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