130 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



Ganges and Brahmapootra, I think it would 

 take a very large number indeed to 

 surprise me. In the places mentioned 

 they simply swarm in thousands, and 

 are only outnumbered by the ' Whistling 

 Teals.' I suppose every one knows how 

 the fishermen of the Sunderbunds and 

 other parts net the vast numbers of Duck 

 that are daily sent in to the Calcutta 

 market, but in case there are some who 

 do not, the following may explain. Over 

 a great stretch of shallow bhil they erect 

 nets some fifteen or twenty feet high, 

 usually selecting the end of a large patch 

 of water where it narrows oif either into 

 dry land or again widens out into yet 

 another bhil. Then, by night, they pole 

 silently up the lake towards the nets, 

 driving the flock of duck and teal silently 

 before them, nor is any noise made until 

 an approach has been made to within 

 some two hundred yards, or even less of 

 the nets. Thus, when the shouts are 

 raised, many of the flocks have not time 

 to rise high enough to evade the nets, 

 into which they fly and are entangled. 

 Cotton Teal, of course, fly low along the 

 surface of the water, and hence fall victims 

 to the nets more easily than such Ducks 

 as get quickly into the air and fly high." 



