Jottings on common Indian Birds.



261



to the Geese. Without pretending to give the names of all the birds

there were on or by the jhil, the following were certainly there.

Grey-lag Geese (Anser ferns), Bar-headed Geese ( A.indicus ), Spotted

Duck (Anas pcecilorhyncha) , Shoveler ( Spatula clypeata), Cotton

Teal ( Nettopus coromandelianus) , Common Teal (Nettion crecca),

Gargany Teal (Querquedula circia) and other Ducks not identified.

Then there were Snipe ( Gallinago ccelestis), Bed-wattled Lapwing

(Sarcogrammus indicus), Black-winged Stilts (. Himantopus candidus\

various small Waders, Great White Egret (. Herodias alba), smaller

Egrets (either H. intermedia or H. garzetta), Glossy Ibis ( Plegadis

falcinellus) , and a rather larger Ibis dark in colour, “ with a red head ”

(my notes). This bird I took to be the Black Ibis (Inocotis papillosus ).

There were in reality many more kinds of birds than these, but it

was a big jhil. It is the morning of the day on which we saw the

Sarus Cranes.


We were three guns : a cousin, his wife and myself ; we had

shot-guns, but the lady had her rifle, and with this she was a practised

shot. My cousin, who was journeying on an annual inspection, was

in camp by this jhil with his family, and with thirty camels, beside

horses, cattle and tents (like Abraham), travelling from Udaipur. I

joined him at about 11 o’clock on a hot morning. It was the 28th of

January. “ The jhil is about 1,000 yards long perhaps, and about of the

same width ; shallow for a considerable distance out, but deep in the

middle and by the band at the further end, and full of crocodiles.

At the upper end is a strip of cultivated land with scant crops of

barley, and their deep reed-beds.” I ought to have said before that

this place lies in a stony desert. (I had been interested to notice,

by the way, that the camel that carried my luggage was able with

the greatest ease to trot right away from the pair of fast ponies of

the tonga in which I was seated).


The Geese which were the object of our attentions were out

in the middle of the jhil; I could not estimate their numbers—

perhaps there were five hundred Grey-lags and two hundred

Bar-headed. The two other guns went round to the further side while

I was taken by two natives into the reed-beds. After a walk and a

wade we came to the last fringe of reeds, beyond which there was a

stretch of mud and creeks, and then the open water of the jhil. It



