NYHOCA FEEINA 26o 



they may have had this when fresh. In shape and texture they agree 

 with Hmne's description, but one egg has a decided, though faint 

 gloss. My eggs average about 2'2.5 X 17 inches. As with other 

 pochards' eggs, they have a rather fragile shell. 



Hartert gives the following measurements for 110 eggs : — 



-Average Ql'il X ■13'76 mm. {= 2"-ll X 172 inches). 



Maxima 68'0 X 45'5 mm. ( = £68X1'8 inches) and 



CA'O X 46'.j mm. (=2'4 x i_S3 inches). 



Minima .yj_^ x 43'0 mm. ( =££5 X 170 inches) and 



61'0 X :lOJl mm. (^2'i X r5_ inches). 



General Habits. — The Pochard is one of the later ducks to arrive 

 iu India. In its northern limits it is seen first in the later half of 

 October, but it does not, I think, extend south until well on into 

 November. In Bengal, to the east and south, the oid of November 

 is as early as one may expect to get it in any numbers, though a 

 few will always be seen in the beginning of that month — stragglers, 

 perhaps, even earlier. I should not, however, call it a very common 

 duck anywhere to the east of the Bengal Presidency, and I remember 

 when shooting in the Sundarbands this Pochard was never in any 

 but very small numbers, although the country all about there is so 

 admirably suited to all its requirements. 



As regards the flocks it collects in, this would seem to depend 

 almost entirely on the country it visits, and the accommodation in 

 the way of water. Thus, where there are huge jheels, morasses, and 

 lakes covered in part with jungle, and in part having open expanses 

 of water of some depth, free of vegetation of a heavy character, it 

 will be found in thousands ; elsewhere it will be found in small 

 flocks, pairs, and rarely single birds. There is practically no kind 

 of water that it will not visit sometimes in greater or smaller 

 numbers, but preferentially, it leaves alone shallow jheels and 

 waters, and also such as have the vegetation everywhere dense ; on 

 the other hand, it does not care for quite open water without 

 vegetation of any kind whatever. 



Even to this last, however, there is no absolutely fixed rule, for 

 it sometimes visits the sea itself, keeping, as a rule, to harbours, 

 estuaries, &c. When shot in such places it, like most other ducks 

 got under the same circumstances, will be found to have a very rank 



