TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



specimen of the duck tribe. The hen bird, however, is 

 more soberly arrayed. 



There is, besides, the white-eyed duck, and another still 

 smaller pochard, the tufted duck, a beautiful dark bird 

 with a large silky crest of black feathers, a white bar on the 

 wings, white stomach and legs, and bill of a lead colour. 

 There is a beautiful glossy green and purple sheen over the 

 plumage of this bird. 



Lastly, comes the shoveller, a larger bird than the above, 

 though not so large as the mallard. It can be easily 

 identified by its large, broad bill of a dark-slate colour. 

 These birds are common, but are not good eating. 



There are two varieties of the wild goose, both of which 

 are to be found in Sind. One is the common wild or grey 

 wing goose of England ; the other the pink-footed goose, a 

 smaller bird than the first. As with all wild geese, they are 

 very difficult to approach, having a habit of lying concealed, 

 huddled up together in batches of sixty or more in clusters 

 of reeds or rushes, and always a long distance from the 

 banks of the lakes or other waters in which they have taken 

 up their temporary abode. They fly in long lines when 

 travelling, and it is a very pleasing sound, heralding as it 

 does the approach of the cold season, to hear their harsh 

 grating call as they pass, flying high, over the camp or 

 bungalow in the early hours of the morning, on their way 

 to their winter quarters. 



But welcome as is the arrival of these great birds to 

 the sportsman, their advent is by no means so agreeable to 

 the Indian agriculturist, for they do a deal of damage to 

 their crops, chiefly grain, a sort of vetch to which they are 

 particularly partial. 



There is another curious bright -russet winged, white- 

 breasted bird, a kind of cross between a goose and a duck, 

 which seems indigenous to India. It is called, for some 

 unknown reason, Brahminy duck in Bengal. These seem- 

 ingly hybrid creatures are always seen in couples, and 

 seldom met with except on rivers. Though game-like in 

 appearance, they are never shot by sportsmen as their flesh 

 is uneatable. Bittern are often put up out of long thick 

 rushes on the edges of tanks and nullahs. They are pre- 

 cisely the same as the English bird and fairly good eating. 

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