CHADLELASMUS STREPERUS 185 



within shot ; also pochards, white-eyes, and shovellers were all to 

 be seen at intervals. Whilst it was still cool and a few wisps of 

 gently quivering mist were still lingering on the top of the water, 

 loath yet to dissolve their ghostly lives into nothingness, we were 

 generally well into the jheel and had scattered out into a long line. 

 Snipe we now allowed to get up unheeded, though as yet they were 

 but few, for not until the sun rose high and hot did they forsake the 

 rice-fields and take to the deep water and the cool shade of lily-leaves. 

 Whistling-teal swarmed in all directions and kept circling round 

 everywhere in countless myriads ; purple coots flustered and fluttered 

 across the tops of the reeds and through the rushes ; the little water- 

 rail scurried across the surface of the water-plants ; and other 

 undesirable birds, such as water-hens, ]a9anas, &c.. were in evidence 

 in every quarter. Still the continuous popping of the guns down the 

 line showed that all the birds were not undesirable ones. Constantly 

 amongst the whistlers overhead there would appear a flock of swifter, 

 more quickly wheeling birds, as the blue-wing teal came through 

 them, roused by one of the other boats ; or a flock of common teal, 

 flying in much the same manner, would rush down nearly the whole 

 line, a splash or two in the water marking the members of their mess 

 whom they had left behind. The duck, however, got up in front and 

 went straight away, seldom wheeling within reach of even the outer- 

 most boats, though now and then a flock sweeping past high overhead 

 would offer a difficult and often useless shot. 



The Gadwall, which were generally only in small flocks, were 

 usually found where there was a certain amount of cover, which, 

 assimilated by the green screen on our boats, allowed us often to 

 get within shot. They dive and swim very well when only wounded, 

 and many a ten minutes was spent in retrieving such birds, for 

 whose sake we generally kept a stock of No. .s cartridges ready at 

 hand to use instead of the No. 4 or 7 we used for others. About 

 10 a.m. our boats all worked in towards some fixed point, and from 

 about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. was given over to lunch and a smoke and 

 an examination of the bag. Between 1 and '2 p.m. we would 

 again embark, and the same routine was gone through only reversed, 

 and the shooting back to the rice-fields was the finale of the after- 

 noon's programme. 



