29(j INDIAN DUCKS 



" I shot this bird on tlie 3rd February last, a few miles above 

 Sampura. I was coming down-stream at the time, when the bird, 

 whicli was by itself, got up a long way down and flew up-stream, 

 passing my boat at a distance of some fifty yards, and I fired at and 

 dropped it. 



" Above Sampura, and up to and beyond Sidharoo, the Golden- 

 eye is not at all uncommon, and I must have seen a hundred or 

 more last January and February. They occur either singly, or in 

 small flocks of eight to ten birds ; they are wild, and will not let a 

 boat come anywhere near them, but rise 100 to 150 yards off. and 

 generally make a fairly long flight before again settling. 



" They always flew off when disturbed, and I never saw them 

 try to escape by diving. 



" In the early morning I saw them on several occasions flighting 

 with Mergansers; their flight is rapid and much like that of the 

 Tufted Pochard, but not (juite, I tiiink, so rapid as that of the 

 White-eyed Pochard. 



" I may mention that I shot a Golden-eye about ten miles from 

 here (Sibsagar) in the cold weather of 1885-6. I sent the skin 

 down to Calcutta, and I think they now have it in the Indian 

 Museum." 



The rivers mentioned by Mr. Morton Eden in the earlier part 

 of his notes are in the Badiya subdivision of Lakhimpur, and are 

 practically hill-rivers of rapid-running clear water. They are of 

 considerable size, even where they just debouch from the mountains, 

 and are the haunts of Golden-eyes, Mergansers, Ibis-bills, and pro- 

 bably many other rare water-birds. 



I have, since Mr. ]\Iorton Eden sent me his notes, seen the 

 Golden-eye on several of the hill-streams in the same district. 

 Upon the Subansiri, a magnificent stream of deep still pools and 

 madly-running rapids, I saw this little duck nearly every time I 

 visited it in the cold-weatlier months, and what I saw fully agreed 

 with his remarks. Only on one occasion did I get really near to it, 

 and this was once when I was stalking a bull buffalo. The buffalo 

 had crossed a back-water, and was standing on the far bank, so I 

 approached the edge of the water on my side with the greatest 

 caution, and halted behind a bush growing almost in it, in order to 

 reconnoitre. The buffalo went off before I could get a shot, but I 

 was rewarded for my care in seeing six Golden-eye playing about 

 in the water within ten yards of me. They were chasing one 



