260 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



seen in large flocks, and is almost invari- 

 ably in small knots of three to ten in 

 number, or, towards the close of the season, 

 in pairs. In the North-West Provinces 

 they are usually met with in the larger 

 jhils and broads, but in the Punjab and 

 Sind they are equally common on the 

 larger rivers and inland waters. 



"With us they feed chiefly by night, 

 often changing their ground for this 

 purpose about dusk, though not with the 

 regularity observable in the case of wild 

 fowl at home, while during the day, at any 

 rate between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., they 

 are, if undisturbed, almost always asleep. 

 On our rivers, you find the party pretty 

 close together, but not huddled into a 

 lump like some other species, snoozing on 

 the bank at the water's edge, while in 

 broads you find them floating motionless 

 in some secluded nook of pellucid water 

 screened in by bulrushes and weeds, and 

 often overhung by tamarisk or other trees. 



" Compared with many other species 

 they are tame and unsuspicious, or, perhaps 

 I should say, unwary. With the most 

 ordinary precautions you may always 

 (where they are not much worried) make 

 sure of some out of every party that you 

 meet with." 



