26 INDIAN DUCKS, 



the cuttings at an olovation (Ao-^o on 2000 £eet. and tlio Inrd, a drake, was 

 then flying steadily up the valley. I have seen Nukhtas myself, u pair of 

 them, in the Mahor Valley at heights ranging between loOO and 2000 feet, 

 and I once heard its hoarse ci-y in the Jiri A^alley at least as high as the 

 latter elevation. I know foi- a certainty that they breed up to at least 

 2000 feet, and I am almost sure that a |)air had their nest in the Mahor 

 Valley even higher up than this. I was out after Saml)hur at the time 

 thev were first seen, and in the centre of some heavy tree-forest I came 

 across a collection of -mall grassy swamps, varying from some one to two 

 hundred yards in diameter. All round these were very lofty trees, and 

 wherever there was sufficient dry land, others were dotted a])out between 

 the pools. 



On my approaching the open, two Nukhtas flew from one of the trees, 

 uttering their loud calls repeatedly. Instead, however, of flying straight 

 away, they continued to fly round in great excitement, and refused to 

 leave the place, even after I had fired at and missed a deer. 



The sort of ground they prefer has been variously described by different 

 writers. Here they keep nmch to water in forests, and more especially to 

 such as is well covered with weeds and grasses, and not of the clearest and 

 cleanest. One or two birds are always to l)e met with near Diyangmukh, 

 on a nullah Avhich runs through heavy forests and in the cold weather is 

 reduced to shallow pools. 



Hume says : — " It much prefers well-wooded tracts, not dense forests 

 like the White-winged AVood-Duck, but well-Avooded level, well-cultivated 

 country. It is a lake bird too. one that chiefly affects rush and reed- 

 margined broads, not bare-edged pieces of water like the Sambhur Lake, 

 and it is comparatively rarely met with on our large rivers. I have shot 

 them alike on the Ganges and the Jumna in the cold season, but it is far 

 more common to find them in jhils and bhils. / hat^e never fowul it in 

 Jiill// (jromnh and very rarely in small ])onds." [The itaUcs are mine.] 

 "Just when the rain sets in they seem to be on the wing at all hours of the 

 day. and almost wherever you go in the North- West Provinces you see 

 tliem moving about, always in pairs, the male as a rule in froiit. They 

 never, as far as I have observed, associate in flocks. There may be half 

 a dozen pairs about a broad in the rains, or half a dozen families, each 

 consisting of two old and four to ten young birds, during the early part of 

 the cold season ; but I have never seen them congregate in flocks as most 

 geese and so many of the ducks do." 



Oates i^vide ' Birds of British Burmah ') seems to have found them in 



