NVROCA FERINA 265 



except in the hottest hours, where they are not interfered with. 

 Hume once or twice caught them feeding on wild rice on land, but 

 their feeding thus is, I should think, quite exceptional, and nearly 

 all their diet is one obtained from fairly deep water amongst roots 

 and similar things. 



Normally they would appear to be neither very shy nor yet very 

 tame, but it takes very little shooting to make them most decidedly 

 the former; and then, owing to their keeping so much in the centre 

 of the water the\- frequent, they are b\' no means easy to get 

 within shot of. 



I do not remember ever to have heard the Pochard utter any 

 sound other than that characterized by Hume and other writers as 

 " Jitirr-Jiurr." It is like that of the white-eye, Init harsher and 

 louder. 



Latham, in his ' Synopsis of Birds,' says that it "has a hissing 

 voice. The flight is rapid and strong ; the flocks have no particular 

 shape in flying, but are indiscriminate." 



This flying en 7nasse, and not in line or V-shape, would appear 

 to be typical of all the true pochards. 



