132 INDIAN UUCKS 



breeding-season, give vent to a low chuckling, not imlike the garnilous 

 notes of the cotton-teal, but more "nearly approaching the quack of a 

 true duck. 



They are most charming little ducks in captivity, and most easy 

 to tame ; indeed, so confiding do the\ become that it is often possible 

 to keep them in complete freedom without their making any attempt 

 to leave the piece of water on which they reside. They soon learn to 

 come when called and be fed out of the hand, and even strangers 

 seem to in no way distract them. 



In captivity they whistle freely as they walk and swim about, and 

 when called soon get into the habit of whistling in reply. They 

 have a curious propensity for walking very great distances, when 

 tame, in search of food, returning home in the evenings, etc., and 

 will thus often walk several hundred yards rather than fly. When 

 there are several birds kept all together, they nearly always walk 

 along in a line just as geese so often do. 



No article on ducks could possibly be complete without Hume's 

 story of the Whistling-Teal, crows, cat and dogs, so it must be 

 here quoted in full • — 



" I once saw a good, large, half-wild village cat spring down upon 

 a duck, which was sitting on her nest in a broad four-pronged fork of 

 a mango tree. The duck did not whistle in the usual manner, she 

 positively screamed ; in a second the drake dashed at the cat, and to 

 my surprise down came a black crow (C viocrorhiiJiclius), not, as any- 

 one would have thought, to steal the eggs in the confusion, l)ut to 

 assail the cat with his claws and beak as it his own homestead had 

 been attacked. In less time than it takes to describe, the cat was 

 squalling in her turn, and fled up one of tiie branches, pursued 

 closely In' the drake and the crow, who were immediateh joined I)y 

 another crow, and the three made it so hot for pussy that she sprang 

 to the ground, where my dogs, aroused by the uproar above (the 

 noise those two crows made was astounding), were awaiting her, and 

 before I could interfere, and before she quite recovered the jump of 

 some 35 or 40 feet, killed her outright. But the strangest part of 

 the business was that the villagers assured me that this nest was the 

 crows' own nest, and that thci/ lent it crrrij year, after their youn^; 

 had flown, to the Whistling-Teal. I should liave verified this the 

 next spring, but left the Mynpooree district, and never again had a 

 chance of visiting the spot." 



