300 THE FOOD OP BIRDS IN INDIA. 



vegetable feeders, .... but they feed on fish, shell fish, and water 

 insects. Hume found one that had gorged itself on fish about an 

 inch in length and I dissected one that had eaten, as far as I 

 could see, nothing but the tiny red crabs which swarm in such 

 countless myriads along the shores of rivers, swamps/' etc. S. B. 

 I. D. A., 212. 



Nyroca. The majority .... feed at dawn or dusk on aquatic 

 plants and seeds, molluscs, insects, and even small fish and frogs, 

 chiefly obtained by diving. E. B. C. N. H., 123. 



1605. Nyroca ferina. Pochard or Dun-bird. Dive for the 

 roots and submerged stems and foliage of all kinds of aquatic 

 plants . . .in Upper India. . . almost entirely vegetable. I have fourd 

 a few insects, grubs, worms, tiny frogs, and a good many shells 

 in their stomachs, but seeds, flower buds, shoots, leaves, stems 

 and roots of water plants, together with fine pebbles and sand of 

 which there is always a considerable quantity, have always consti- 

 tuted the bulk of the contents of these. One examined ' ' proved 

 to have fed chiefly on marine plants, small Crustacea and mollusca. 

 H. M. G. B. Ill, 249. They feed largely by night but also in the 

 day, and obtain much of their food, which is chiefly vegetable, by 

 diving. F. I. IV, 459. Their bad flavour is, of course, due to 

 their food, which when they take to the sea-shore, consists o 

 tiny marine shell fish, fishes, etc. ; whereas, when in fresh water 

 it consists mainly of a vegetable diet, though, like all ducks, they 

 are more or less omnivorous. Principally night feeders. Hume 

 once or twice caught them feeding on wild rice land, but nearly 

 all their diet is one obtained from fairly deep water amongst roots 

 and similar things. S. B. I. D. A., 220-221. 



1606. Nyroca ferruginea. White-eyed Duck. They are with 

 us quite omnivorous ; no doubt their food chiefly corsists of vege- 

 table matter, leaves, stems, roots and seeds of grass, rush, sedge 

 and all kinds of aquatic herbage ; but besides this I have roted 

 at different times, amongst the contents of their stomachs, delicate 

 fresh water shells and shrimps, insects (including several species 



