6 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XL 



prominent characteristic, and a close approach means the result of a 

 stalk as carefully made as if the stalker was after the very wildest kind of 

 deer or antelope. A mistake made in attempting to conceal one's self 

 and the whole flock rise gracefully into the air and remove themselves 

 into safety. Typically their flight is distinctly anserine, not perhaps 

 exactly V shape, hut more in the form of a curved ribbon, the ends 

 fluttering backwards and forwards as the birds, more especially those 

 at the two extremes, alter their position. As a matter of fact different 

 writers have declared the birds' flight to vary very much ; some have 

 said that in no respect does the flight of these birds resemble that of 

 ducks or geese, but that, rising in one indiscriminate mass, they con- 

 tinue their flight as they rise ; others, on the other hand, say that the 

 formation they assume is nearly as regularly V shaped as that adopted 

 by geese. Both are doubtless right, and it seems probable that, when 

 flying for a short distance only, they adopt no special mode of flight, 

 whereas on migration, or when moving to any distance, their forma- 

 tion is much as already described. Flying or wading, they are a 

 lovely sight and, often as they have been described, no one has yet 

 been able to do justice to their beauty. In December, 188.1 s when 

 passing through the Suez Canal, I observed more of these birds 

 congregated together than I had ever considered possible, the banks 

 in some places looking as if covered with a rosy snow, so densely were 

 the birds packed. As the steamer gradually approached nearer and 

 nearer, the snow melted on its outskirts into a crimson flame as the 

 birds lifted their wings prior to taking flight, and in so doing exposed 

 their scarlet underwing coverts and axillaries. They made but little 

 noise, the few calls that were heard being very similar to those of a 

 wild goose, but not, I think, quite so discordant. 



Writing of these birds, Mr. Eagle Clarke (Ibis, Vol. I, No. 2, p. 200, 

 1895), writes : " To witness the simultaneous unfolding of a thousand 

 lovely crimson and black pinions under sunlight is a sight the 

 recollection of which will not readily be effaced from our memories. 

 The flock did not run forward to rise on the wing, but we noticed 

 that they deliberately turned and faced a gentle breeze that was 



blowing and rose with perfect ease We several times noticed 



the whole herd .... on the wing . . . but in no instance was any 

 particular formation maintained." 



