INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 201 
diving, swimming, or flight, it is sure to dive before, at any rate, the 
sportsman has time to get a shot, and once it has seen him and_ had its 
first dive it is very problematical as to whether he will ever get a shot 
again. It is worth remembering, should one came across a flock in any 
large piece of water, Hume’s maxim that Tufted Pochards will not 
leave the water they are on until after dark. He gives one of his 
usual graphic descriptions of a shoot in which Tufted Pochards played 
the principal part, and describes how, after a fusilade from ten guns, no 
more than 5 (!) birds were collected out of a huge flock of ducks diving 
about all round them. . 
Knowing their habits, however, he waited until he and his fellow- 
sportsmen were going over the same beat the next day and then, ex- 
tending in a long line, they worked backwards and forwards, and 
this time the birds rising in front were, each beat, gradually forced to 
the end of the water. After arriving at this they bad to fly back 
overhead, and in this way they were accounted for to the tune of over 
sixty birds. They are not to be often found on open tanks whose 
shores are free of jungle, nor on rivers ; but I have once or twice seen 
pairs on the Megna, and at other times have met them on tanks 
absolutely free of all vegetation. The pair shot by Mr. Routh in Haf- 
long were on an artificial tank with no vestige of water-plant about it, 
as it had not then been a year in existence. Their cry is said to be the 
typical harsh grating “ kir” or “ kurr ” of the Pochard family, but it is 
a silent bird on the whole and seldom indulges in voicifications of any 
sort. 
Its food is almost entirely animal, much the same in fact as that of 
the Scaup, but it is far more a fresh-water bird and far less a sea bird, 
than is that duck, though common enough on the coast line, along the 
greater portion of its habitat. It is, of course, a poor article of food, 
though even here again tastes differ and some people say that it is not 
bad. Hume, who was particular about his table ducks, said that he had 
found some “ good enough,” and that some sportsmen had told him 
that they are eacellent ! 
They feed principally during the day-time, but migrate and move 
from one place to another after sunset. They do not ever appear to 
have been found feeding on land, but should they ever do so, the pro- 
bability is that they only thus feed during the night. 
