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with in very vast flocks. All through the Sundarbands, and again on 

 the Chilka Lake, they are often to be seen in flocks of thousands, and 

 in Oudh, the north-west, and Sind, such flocks are by no means rare. 



As a rule, over most of the bird's north and north-western range, 

 the flocks may roughly be said to average somewhere about and 

 between one to two hundred. To the east, I think, they average 

 smaller, and would put it somewhere between fifty and a hundred. 

 Small flocks of five or six, or even ten or twelve, are not, I think at 

 all commonly met with, while pairs and single individuals are hardly 

 ever seen. 



Garganey haunt almost any kind of water, not, as a rule, 

 frequenting small, quick-running streams, or small clean tanks and 

 ponds, and being specially partial to wide stretches of fen or bheel, 

 well covered over their greater extent with weeds, yet having fairly 

 extensive patches of clear water dotted here and there over their 

 surface. 



During the day they keep almost entirely to the larger sheets of 

 water or, sometimes, to the large rivers, such as the Indus, Ganges, etc., 

 where they float in the centre in dense, closely-packed masses. This 

 manner of packing is very characteristic of the Garganey, and they 

 keep more closely together than does any other kind of duck ; even 

 when flying they do not straggle much. They feed in the smaller 

 tanks and jhils, and also in the paddy-fields, and on various young 

 land-crops. Hume says that in some parts of India they visit the 

 paddy-fields in such numbers that on one visit acres of paddy are 

 destroyed. Their staple diet is vegetarian, and of vegetable matter 

 the staple articles are rice, both cultivated and wild, and the young 

 leaves and shoots of various water-plants. They also eat various 

 kinds of seeds, roots, etc., and such animal matter in the shape of 

 worms, snails, and shell-fish, etc., as forces itself on their notice. 



Hume describes well the sound of their flight thus : — 



" Whether it is only because one habitually meets them in such 

 large flocks, or whether it is really peculiar to them, I do not know : 

 but certainly one associates the overhead flight of this species witli 

 the surging hiss, more even, sustained, and rushing than that of any 

 of our other ducks. Anyone who has stood under heav>- round-shot 

 fire knows the way in which shot hurtle up to you crescendo, and 

 die away as they pass ; and just in this way (thougii the sounds are 



