276 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



you push through the reeds and rushes, 

 continually flushing the Marbled Duck, 

 and the broad must be small, or the 

 hunting very close and long continued, 

 to induce all the Marbled Ducks to take 

 wing. Of course, where there is little 

 cover (though there you never meet with 

 this Duck in large numbers) they rise 

 and fly about with other ducks ; but 

 their tendency in these respects is rather 

 coot-like than duck-like. Individuals may 

 take wing at the first near shot, but the 

 great majority of them stick to the rush 

 as long as this is possible ; and on two 

 occasions I saw very pretty shooting, 

 boats in line pushing up a wide extent 

 of rush-grown water, and the Marbled 

 Duck rising every minute in front of us 

 at distances of sixty or seventy yards, 

 like Partridges out of some of our great 

 Norfolk turnip-fields ; here and theie a 

 Shoveller, or a White-eyed Duck, both 

 of which, when disturbed, chng a good 

 deal to cover, would be flushed ; but 

 there were not one of these to ten of 

 the Marbled Duck. This species is not 

 amongst first-class ducks for the table ; 

 it ranks with the Shoveller and the White- 

 eyed Duck, and after obtaining a goodly 

 array of specimens, we never shot it, 



