INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 177 



described. Hume says their flight is powerful and fairly rapid, and that 

 they are all round quicker, more active birds than geese both on the 

 wing and in the water. Jerdon, however, did not think much of the bird 

 as a " progressionist," and Legge describes their flight as heavy, and 

 leads one generally to the belief that he deemed it rather an awkward, 

 clumsy bird — which it certainly is not. Tickell's remarks in general on 

 this bird vary so much from those recorded of other people that I quote 

 them nearly in full : " I have met with these birds chiefly about west 

 Burdwan, Bankoora, Singbloom, and Chhota Nag-pur, in open, uncultivated 

 bushy country, on a gravelly soil scattered, over with small, clear ponds 

 or tanks, where they may be found in parties of four or five, resting 

 during the heat of the day on the clean pebbly or sandy margins, and 



flying off, if disturbed, to the next piece of water Wherever 



found they appear to prefer clear water with a gravelly or stone bottom, 

 and are never found in shallow, muddy jhils or marshes which attract 



such hosts of other kinds of Wild Fowl They are very wary 



and, as they take to wing generally at a long shot distance, and 

 have both skin and plumage exceedingly thick, it is difficult to kill 

 them with an ordinary fowling-piece ; and if winged on the water, 

 they dive so incessantly as to require the help of several people to catch 

 them. 



" I have placed their eggs under domestic hens and ducks, and hatched 

 and reared the young birds easily, but they never became thoroughly 

 tame and escaped on the first opportunity they had, though they had, up 

 to the time of their flight, fed readily with the poultry in the yard. 

 They ran and walked freely, and could perch on anything that did not 

 require to be grasped 



" It is an exceedingly silent bird — indeed, I have never heard it utter 

 any sound. They repose chiefly on gravel beaches by the side of clear 

 still water Their flight is high and well sustained 



" At night they roam over the paddy stubble, and I have found their 

 stomachs full of rice during the harvest." 



Other people seem to have been more successful than Tick ell in 

 domesticating this fine (goose or) duck, and there are numerous instances 

 on record in which the bird has been readily and thoroughly tamed. How 

 a cross between this and any of the breeds of domestic duck would answer 

 is very problematical. Of course the product would be a bird of size and 



