MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1G9 



No. XXII.— LATE STAY OF WILD FOWL. 



Having read with much interest your note in the Pioneer of 27th April on 

 the abnormally late stay of migratory wild fowl this year on the Ganges near 

 Allahabad, I think that a few remarks on this head may prove interesting 

 as showing that a similar condition has prevailed this year in Kashmir. The 

 wild fowl here, after being scattered and driven away by the heavy snow and 

 severe frosts of January and February, began to reappear towards the end of 

 the latter month in daily increasing numbers, and some very good bags were 

 made, particularly on the State preserve, Hokarsor,— always a great haunt for 

 wild fowl. The numbers of duck increased during March, and, with the excep- 

 tion perhaps of mallard, large numbers of duck and a fair quantity of geese 

 ( Anser cinereus) remained into April. I shot one of the latter on the 5th April 

 from a party of ten which passed me during a hurricane of cold wind and rain. 

 On 16th April I gave up shooting and returned to. Srinagar, and up to that 

 time nearly every jheel and tract of new inundation formed by the lately-melted 

 snow held plenty of fowl, including gadwal, pintail, shoveler, teal, garganey, 

 wigeon and white-eyed {Fuligula nyroca) and red-headed {Fuligula ferina) 

 pochards. This latter, generally rare in Kashmir, has been very abund- 

 ant during the late winter, while his handsome relative, the red-crested pochard 

 {Fuligula rufina), has only shown in comparatively small numbers. Wigeon 

 {Mareca penelope) has been more numerous than usual ; while some specimens 

 of the very uncommon white-faced stiff-tailed duck {Erismotura leucocepJmla) 

 have been secured. This latter, by no means a regular visitor here, was seen 

 on several occasions in March last. It is by no means shy, and can be ap- 

 proached by a boat in perfectly open water. It is a most expert diver, a 

 winged bird being almost impossible to secure, swims very deep in the water, 

 and when getting on the wing " skittirs " along the surface like a coot. Since 

 my return to Srinagar I have several times seen flights of teal and duck passing 

 over, and only yesterday saw four greyleg geese {A. cinereus), and have no 

 doubt that abnormally large numbers of wild fowl are still left in the valley. 

 The reasons for this unusually late migration form a problem well worth dis- 

 cussion ; it is possibly due to the stormy unsettled weather which appears to 

 have prevailed for more than a month past throughout the Himalayan regions, 

 and this theory is supported by the fact that wild fowl prefer fine clear moon- 

 light nights for their migrations, but Kashmir and the hills generally have known 

 winters more severe than, and springs as stormy as, the last, without the fowl 

 allowing them to interfere with their regular annual dates of departure ; and it is 

 possible that if the late bad weather has caused the delay, it is because the duck 

 recognise it as connected with conditions prevailing at their northern breeding 

 grounds which render a longer stay in the sunny south desirable. It will be in- 

 teresting to observe if this long delay will induce some of them to breed here, 



Kashmir, 3rd May. W. A. UNWIN, Colonei,. 



{The above appeared in the "Pioneer " on lllh May, 1897.). 



