290 INDIAN DUCKS 



shot again. It is worth remembering, should one come across a flock 

 in any large piece of water, Hume's maxim that Tufted Pochards will 

 not leave the water they are on until after dark. He gives one of 

 his usual graphic descriptions of a shoot in which Tufted Pochards 

 played the principal part, and describes how, after a fusillade from 

 ten guns, no more than five (!) birds were collected out of a huge 

 fiock of ducks diving all round about them. 



Knowing their habits, however, he waited until he and his fellow- 

 sportsmen were going over the same beat the next day, and then, 

 extending in a long line, they worked backwards and forwards, and 

 this time the birds rising in front were at each beat gradually forced 

 to the end of the water. After arriving at this they had to fl} back 

 overhead, and in this way they were accounted for to the tune of 

 over sixty ducks. 



They are not to be often found on open tanks, whose shores are 

 free of jungle, nor on rivers ; but I have once or twice seen pairs on 

 the Megna, and at other times have met \n ith them on tanks al)solutely 

 free of all vegetation. The pair shot by Mr. Kouth in Haflong were 

 on an artificial tank with no vestige of water-plants about it, as it had 

 not been a year in existence. I found also that when leaving and 

 entering India, and during the months of March and early April and 

 in October, these little ducks were quite common on all the hill 

 streams and rivers where they debouch into the plains. 



Their cry is the typical, harsh ' kir ' or ' kurr,' of the Pochard 

 family ; but they are silent birds on the whole, and seldom indulge in 

 vociferations of any sort. 



This duck's food is almost entirely animal, much the same, in fact, 

 as that of the scaup, but it is far more a fresh-water bird, and far less 

 a sea-bird, than is that duck, though common enough on the coast- 

 line along the greater part of its habitat. It is, of course, a poor 

 article of food, though here, again, tastes differ, and some people 

 say it is not bad. Hume, who was particular about his table ducks, 

 said that he had found some " good enough," and that some sports- 

 men had told him that they were excellent ! 



Tufted ducks feed principally during the daytime, but migrate and 

 move from one place to another after sunset. They do not ever appear 

 to have been found feeding on land, but should they ever do so, the 

 probability is that they only thus feed during the night. 



