LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 527 
to be able to swear to it. The Grey Jungle Fowl also, I 
more than strongly suspect, is to be found in the Mals 
near the Ghumsur boundary. I myself one day came ona 
Grey Jungle Fowl, which immediately flew into a tree. I 
took a careful pot at it about ten yards off and missed it 
horribly. When the smoke cleared away I discovered that 
the fowl had done the same. This was within half a mile 
of a village,so the bird in question might have been a 
village Murgi astray, or a cross with a village one. On 
the other hand the Raja of Nyagarh assured me that 
on his estate there were two kinds of Jungle Fowl—one 
a grey one, “Chitra” he called it, and the ordinary red 
and black one. He has promised to send me _ specimens. 
We also questioned several Konds independently, and they 
all made similar statements. 
It would be difficult to exaggerate the number of wild fowl 
that visit the Chilka annually. They come literally in millions. 
The best feeding grounds are near Bhusandpur, a village at the 
north-western corner of the lake, and at Parikud, an estate 
situated at the south-eastern and eastern border. Here, 
as I stated before, the lake is very shallow and filled with 
weed (Linli); there are large crops of rice grown in the 
vicinity and besides, near Bhusandpur, some thousands of 
acres of mud flat extend into the Chilka. 
There are rice fields however and lots of weeds the 
whole way round the Chilka shore, so that, although 
most of the birds are to be found either near Bhusandpur or 
Parikud, yet a fair sprinkling occur all over the lake. The 
birds that occur in the greatest numbers are the Barred-headed 
Goose, the Pintail and the Greylag Goose. One flock of 
Barred-headed Geese, which we came across in December, 1885, 
were standing ona mud flat in a line over three-quarters of a 
mile long and three and four birds deep, all closely packed. 
They were much too wise to let the chaprasi that we sent after 
them get within two hundred yards of them. The birds get 
very wild on the Chilka, as native shikaries are potting at them 
all day long. No one has tried a proper punt and swivel gun 
at them yet, and I have no doubt immense bags could be made 
in that manner, 
The usual way here is to get into a native “danga” or dug- 
out, and let the boatmen pole you to within range. In this 
way you can get lots of pretty shots, but very rarely one 
within fifty yards. On some days the birds are much wilder 
than others. I remember one day, when out with my brother, 
a party of nine Ruddy Sheldrakes let us come up within thirty 
yards of them before they rose, and another pair settled down 
within twenty yards of the boat and let us pass them without 
