300 INDIAN PUCKS 



Just as are the pochards, so is this bird found alike on salt and 

 fresh water, but there is no doubt ihat it prefers fresh water to salt. 

 It would seem that open waters are preferred to small enclosed 

 pieces, and deep clear water to shallow vegetation-covered pools and 

 swamps. This, of course, we should expect to be the case with a 

 diving-duck whose food consists, as the Golden-eye's does, almost 

 entirely of animal matter procured by diving. 



It is said to feed on " testaceous mollusca, Crustacea and fishes," 

 also on water-insects and grubs, and, but not often, also on 

 vegetable food, principally deep-water weed-roots and similar 

 articles. 



Tts flight is swift and strong, and Macgillivray says: — 



"They fly with rapidity in a direct manner: their small, stiff, 

 sharp-pointed wings producing a whistling sound, which in calm 

 weather may be heard a considerable distance." 



Sir Ralph Payue-Gallwey also notes: — 



" The wings of this species are so short and stiff in proportion 

 to its weight and size, and are forced to beat so quickly to project 

 its body, that a distinct whistle may he heard as it flies by." 



He also writes anent its diving powers : — 



" Scaup or Pochard that may have been under water at the 

 moment ot firing, after finishing their dive for food at leisure, will 

 startle the fowler by rising close to him as he pushes up to gather 

 his cripples. Golden Eyes seem to know when their companions 

 are leaving the surface in flight, and will at once spring up to 

 follow and join the rest. I never knew them incautiously rise 

 \Yithin range after a shot, like the other species alluded to." 



Mr. John Cordeaux ('Birds of the Humber District') observes 

 that when diving it remains immersed on an average from forty- 

 five to fifty seconds. 



Macgillivray describes the cry of this bird as " a mere grunting 

 croak, and is never heard to any considerable distance ; the epithet 

 Glangula given to it by the earlier ornithologists had reference, 

 not to its voice, but to the whistling of its wings." 



The number of individuals in the flocks seems to vary greatly ; 

 in India no large flocks are likely to be seen, but it will be noted 

 that, even on the Indus, Stoker and Yerbury met with small flocks, 

 not pairs and single birds, and, where common, the bird is said 

 sometimes to assemble in flocks of some hundreds. 



