352 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



Mr. Hume remarks : " This species has, 

 I think, an easier, smoother, and more 

 rapid flight than most of the other 

 Pochards, and rises much more rapidly 

 and with less fluster than these ; but still, 

 like these, it strikes the water once or 

 twice with its feet, and makes a loud 

 splashing sound when rising in numbers. 

 It swims rather v deep in the water and 

 very rapidly, and dives constantly, keeping 

 under water for a surprising time. When 

 you try to get near them in any slow 

 native boat, the fresh fowl seldom think 

 of rising, but swim and dive away from 

 you quite as quickly as the boat can go. 

 Even when a gun is fired they do not 

 always fly ; indeed I have seen a large 

 flock of several hundred birds disappear 

 as if by magic all having dived as if 

 by one consent. ... At other times they 

 will rise before you are within a hundred 

 yards, and taking short flights, plump 

 down again suddenly into the water, stern 

 first, as if shot. . . . Though noisy enough 

 as they splash up in a crowd out of the 

 water, and recognisable at any time by 

 the sharp whistling of their wings as they 

 pass overhead, they are, in winter at any 

 rate, singularly silent birds when let alone. 

 When alarmed and flushed, they occasion- 



