256 INDIAN DUCKS 



Naturally it is principally a vegetable feeder, and when feeding on 

 water-plants and young crops its flesh is excellent; but when, as is 

 sometimes the case, it feeds on fish, shell-fish, water-insects, &c., 

 they at once assume a rank fishy taste which no amount of seasoning 

 will obscure. 



Hume found one which had gorged itself on small fish about 

 an inch in length, and I dissected one which had eaten, as far as I 

 could see, nothing but the tiny red crabs which swarm in such count- 

 less myriads along the shores of rivers, swamps and backwaters in the 

 Sundarbands, the waters of which are brackish. This was the only 

 specimen the contents of whose stomach I noted whilst shooting in 

 Jessore and Khulna ; but all we shot and tried to eat tasted the same, 

 and I have no doubt that they, too, had been feeding on crabs. 



In Cachar and Sylhet I found the Red-Crested Pochard one of the 

 very best of ducks for the table, and the same held good in the 

 Dibrugarh and adjoining districts of Assam. 



They are strong flyers and go at a good pace, but they are very slow 

 in getting off the water, and take some time to get their pace up. 



Finn says that their note is a harsh croak sounding like "kurr." 

 This is the same syllable used by Hume to represent their note, 

 he calling their note a " deep, grating kurr." He also adds : — 



Occasionally the males only, I think, emit a sharp sibilant note 

 — a sort of whistle, quite different from that of the Wigeon, and yet 

 somewhat reminding one of that." 



From a sporting point of view, the Eed-Crested Pochard is all that 

 can be desired. About as smart as they make them, he seems to have 

 special aptitude for judging the length of range of different guns ; and 

 a flock may be caught once, but seldom twice, whatever distance the 

 gun may reach. 



It swims so fast that it can by this means alone often escape 

 and it is often very loath to rise when it can thus get out of shot. 

 Its swimming powers, manner of packing, and capacity for diving 

 are so well shown by Hume's account of his shooting in the 

 Etawah district that yet again I indent on him wholesale : — 



" All night long .... I had heard water-fowl coming in, and 

 the next morning, before dawn, I was out in my punt, working softly 



