4o6 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



decamp. Spending the night at sea, they 

 enter the estuaries at dawn, and for the 

 period of daylight succeed in setting at 

 naught all the arts and stratagems of man 

 — to them indeed, and to the Golden-eyes, 

 belongs alone of all their watchful tribe 

 the credit. of out-manoeuvring and nullifying 

 the most elaborate devices of their arch- 

 enemy. They systematically enter waters 

 which are as free and open to punts as 

 to themselves, remain there for their own 

 purposes all day, and, evading every artifice 

 to outwit them, leave again at night for 

 the open sea, without losing the number 

 of their mess. Of course, in punting year 

 after year, a stray chance does turn up at 

 intervals to work in a successful shot, but 

 as a rule Mergansers and Golden-eyes are 

 more than a match for the most skilful 

 fowler that ever went afloat. 



" The only shots I have known at 

 Mergansers from a punt have occurred 

 either when they are caught sunning 

 themselves round a bend in a curving 

 sand-bank — this is a habit they often 

 indulge in at midday, when a dozen may 

 often be seen basking together — or in a 

 narrow 'gut' where a punt can creep 

 up unseen. They rarely, however, trust 

 themselves in such dangerous spots, and 



