262 Co7iiributions to the Ornthology of India, Sfci. 



and during- the few days we were there^ very considerable num- 

 bers were killed. 



964.— Querquedula crecca, L, 



Common enoug-h everywhere^ alike on the rivers and the 

 lakes. 



965.— Querquedula circia, L. 



The garganey must, I think, he rare in Sindh dm-ing the 

 cold season, for I never chanced to see it, nor did any of us ob- 

 tain a specimen; I have however since received one, killed at 

 the close of the inundation, and at that season I understand 

 they come in, in large flocks. 



966 6^*5.— Querquedula Angustirostris, MS- 



netries. — Q. marmorata, Tern. 



The marbled duck, a species not included by Dr. Jerdon in 

 the Birds of India, was singularly abundant in suitable localities 

 in Sindh, and I have also heard of its being* killed in Guzerat. 

 In Sindh where I had abundant opportunities of observing it, I 

 found it invariably associated in large parties ; its favorite haunts 

 are broads, thickly grown with rush, in which it feeds and sports, 

 comparatively seldom shewing itself in the open watei-. As a rule 

 it does not at once rise when guns are fired as the other ducks 

 do, but, if at the outside of the rush, scuttles into these for con- 

 cealment, as a coot would do, and if in them already, remains 

 there perfectly quiet until the boats push within 60 or 70 yards of 

 it ; then it rises, generally one at a time, and even though fired 

 at, not unfrequently again drops into the rush within a couple of 

 hundred yards. When there has been a good deal of shooting 

 on a lake, and almost all the other ducks and with them of 

 course so^iie of these are circling round and round high in the air, 

 you still keep, as you push through the reeds and rushes, con- 

 tinually flushing the marbled duck, and the broad must be 

 small, or the hunting very close and long continued, to induce all 

 the marbled ducks to take wing*. Of course where there is little 

 cover (though there you never meet with this duck in large 

 numbers) they rise and fly about with the other ducks ; but their 

 tendency in these respects is rather coot-like than duck-like. 

 Individuals may take wing- at the first near shot, but the great 

 majority of them stick to the rush as long as this is possible, and 

 on two occasions I saw very pretty shooting, boats in line push- 

 ing up a wide extent of rush-grown water, and the marbled duck 

 rising every minute in front of us at distances of 60 or 70 

 yards, like partridges out of some of our great Norfolk turnip 



