00 INDIAN DUCKS. 



coinnion than to the east ; it occurs in Persia and Turkestan, so that its 

 comino; into India is bv no means surprisino-. 



Its first prohahle a})pearanee in India was recorded in the old ' Oriental 

 Sporting Magazine/ and from that time (18l)(i) until, in the pages of the 

 Bombay Nat. Hist. Society's Journal, I noted Mr. Mundy's having seen it 

 in Dibrugarh, no one had ever come across it again. Mr. Mundy saw 

 the bird on the Bramapootra, and, though he failed to ol)tain a specimen, he 

 took very careful notes of its coloration, which, on being repeated to me, 

 were am})le enough to enable me to identify the bird as the Ked-breasted 

 Goose. Finally, in March 1907, I myself was fortunate enough to see five 

 specimens on a chur in the Brahmapootra, just below Gowhatty ; they 

 arose a long way off as the steamer drove upstream towards them, but 

 turned and flew past us within sixty to a hundred yards, and there could 

 have been no possible chance of mistaking them. 



Zhitnikov, as quoted by Alpheraky, gives a most interesting account 

 of this beautiful goose. He writes : — " Thick clouds of geese (of both 

 species) got up from the shores of the lake, cackling incessantly, and flew 

 off to the steppe ; and the abandoned lake now contained only sheldrakes 

 and avocets. A belated gaggle of geese had alighted near my place of 

 concealment, but a white-tailed eagle at once dispersed them, giving me no 

 chance of shooting. 



"We sat in our pits to no purpose until eight o'clock, and then went to 

 the river, to drink tea, on our way putting up Brahmini Ducks feeding in 

 the steppe grass. Having finished our tea, — a nasty, muddy infusion from 

 the river, but not brackish, — we again took up our posts in the pits, after 

 carefully screening them with grass. 



" At ten in the mornino- the call of the oeese resounded from the Atrek; 

 a series of black streaks showed from beyond the river ; nearer and nearer 

 they flew, and the whole steppe round was filled with clouds of birds. To 

 gain any idea of the vast masses that collect to migrate, one must actually 

 see this host of geese, and hear their cackle, which drowns the human 

 voice. Without any exaggeration, it may be said that there were tens 

 of thousands of birds, some of the flocks containing from at least 300 

 to 500 birds. Flock after flock arrived on the lake ; the first parties 

 were followed by others, and from beyond the river appeared the ever- 

 approaching squadrons. They flew for the most part in masses, and 

 only small flocks of 10 to 20 geese disposed themselves in transverse 

 lines. 



" It may here be added that in winter the kazarkas generally flew to 



