50 INDIAN ZOOLOGY. 



XIII, 



■ANSER MELANOTOS. 

 THE BLACK-BACKED GOOSE. 



Anfer Melanotos, Gmsl'm, Lin. i. 503. Latham-, vi. 449. 

 Index Ornith. ii. 839. 



Black-backed "KTOTWITHSTANDING the ittes of the Eaji-Indies 

 fwarm with crocodiles, which are animals of infati- 

 able voracity, catching at every living creature that fre- 

 quents their element, yet no country abounds more with 

 aquatic birds ; nature hath happily given them a quick- 

 nefs of light, and an inftantaneous locomotive power, 

 which enables them to elude the jaws of an enemy, which, 

 it is well known, cannot turn without the utmofl diffi- 

 culty. It is by a fine inftind: that the lelTer and more 

 agile fpecies of ducks frequent, in flocks innumerable, the 

 Ihores, the mouths of rivers, and the marfliy parts of the 

 ifles, and are, with the crocodiles, joint tenants of the 

 waters; while the larger and more clumfy fowl avoid 

 thofe places, and, dividing into fmall families, haunt only 

 the lakes and ftreams that lie * in the deep receifes of the 



• Which KnOrX, in his Hiftory of Ceylon, p. 3, fays, the crocodiles never 

 approach, 



J lofty 



