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Jottings on Common Indian Birds.



was very hot in the reeds, but I had a delightful time watching the

birds. There were three Common Snipe on the mud close to me,

and, as they had no idea I was peeping at them through the reeds,

thev went on feeding quite calmly, sticking their bills into the mud

and turning over little bits of dead rush. There were Ducks also

and Teal on the mud and in the water near it—but as this story may

easily grow too long I must keep to the Geese. Well, we failed

altogether with the Geese. Natives walked into the water as

far as they dared, making a great splashing, the rifle was fired,

but the jhil was too large ; all the Geese did was to get up with a

clamour of voices and roar of wings and settle again more in the

middle than ever. This went on for quite a long time, and seeing it

was hopeless I started round outside the reed beds to look out

for Snipe on the grass, but all the wet places were dry, so to

say. The grass sloped up to a road by a village, and on the

slope women were washing clothes ; standing by them and pulling

at the grass was a flock of five Geese as tame as Geese could be. What

was my astonishment as I got nearer to see that they were all Bar¬

headed Geese ! As I walked quietly towards them, they put up their

heads uneasily, but allowed me to get within, say, forty yards, when

they rose up and flew for the lake, crossing me at about the same

distance. I got one. Wild Geese know they are safe from natives,

and, which is more curious, the next morning my cousin’s little boy

(aged seven ?) walked right through the flock as they were on the grass,

and had to “ hurroosh ” them out of his way. That evening I got

one Grey-lag by lying up behind a barley sheaf.


Without giving the names of all the Ducks seen in India,

most of which are known to us as ornamental waterfowl, I may just

mention two. They were new to me, though the first will be well

enough known to many of our readers and is certainly so to the

Editor who has a collection of them at his beautiful home in

Herefordshire. This is the Cotton Teal ( Nettopus coromandelianus).

I first saw it in Ceylon in the sort of water where one would expect

to find the Whistling Teal {Dendrocygna javanica), indeed there was

one of these birds sitting at the same time on a bough of a fallen and

half-submerged tree. I saw it from the road. I was peeping

through a hedge when I saw at some distance a little bird swimming



