288 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



Ganges rises high. To such an extent do 

 these inundations occasionally prevail that 

 the human inhabitants are compelled to 

 take to boats, while the deer and game 

 generally resort to the few highest spots, 

 where they are often slaughtered. The 

 tigers have even been known to live for 

 a time in trees, where, apparently, they 

 feed on turtles, small crocodiles, and 

 dead animals which come floating near 

 the trees. 



" Scattered among these plains are pools 

 of deep water, extending over areas of 

 from ten to forty acres, abounding in wild 

 fowl and crocodiles, surrounded by very 

 high grass with stalks like thin bamboo. 

 A few stumpy trees, hidgels and others, 

 grow in this grass, the pools are covered 

 with beautiful lotus plants, and here the 

 Pink-headed Duck resorts at all seasons 

 of the year. . . . 



" One morning in May, very early, I 

 was standing, almost without clothes, at 

 the door of a travelling bungalow on 

 the trunk-road in Purneah, watching two 

 Florikens with a binocular as they wheeled 

 about in the sky, when about a dozen dark 

 Ducks, with lovely, rosy, light-coloured 

 feathers under their wings, alighted in & 

 tank close by. I immediately got my 



