128 INDIAN' Dl'CKS. 



■wandering about i>ome half-frozen brook or wholly frozen broail, j»ut u[) a 

 pair of \vild duck from some sheltered place beneath a tree or thick cluster 

 of reeds. Generally, even in the de})tli of Avinter, they keep to open 

 water, be it a pool ever so small; but they may also be ^een disconsolately 

 sitting at the edge of a completely ice-bound pond. 



As regards their habits generally, it is impossible to do better than 

 follow Hume and quote what Macgillivray says : — 



" Marshy places, the margins of lakes, pools, and rivers, as well as 

 brooks, rills, and ditches, are its i)rincipal places of resort at all seasons. 

 It walks with ease, even runs with considerable speed, swims, and on 

 occasion dives, although not in search of food. Seeds of Graminea.' and 

 other plants, fleshy and fibrous roots, worms, moUusca, insects, small 

 reptiles and fishes, are the principal objects of its search. In shallow water 

 it reaches the bottom with its bill, keeping the hind part of the body erect 

 by a continual motion of the feet. On the water it sits rather lightly, with 

 the tail consideraljly inclined upwards ; when searching under the surface 

 it keeps the tail flat on the Avater, and when paddling at the bottom, with 

 its hind part up, it directs the tail backwards. The male emits a low and 

 rather soft cry between a croak and a murmur, and the female a louder 

 and clearer jabber. Both, on being alarmed, and especially in flying off, 

 (juack ; but the (piack of the female is much the louder. When feeding 

 they are silent, Ijut when satiated they often amuse themselves with 

 various jal)l)erings, swim about, approach each other, move their heads 

 backwards and forward-, ^ duck Mn the water, throwing it uj) over their 

 backs, shoot along its surface, half flying, half running, and in short are 

 quite playful when in good humour. On being surprised or alarmed when 

 on shore, or on water, they spring up at once with a bound, rise obliquely 

 to a considerable height, and fly off with speed, their hard-quilled wings 

 whistling against the air. When in full flight their velocity is great, being 

 j)robably a hundred miles an hour. Like other ducks, they impel themselves 

 by quickly repeated flaps without sailings or undulations.^' 



Probably some of us will not agree with what Htime says regarding 

 the comparative merits of a punt-gun when he deckires that " There is 

 more skill, knowledge, and endurance brought into play, and therefore 

 more sport, in one day's big shooting, than in a week of even such .... 

 big shooting as Captain Butler describes."' I have had a little experience 

 of both, and must most emphatically dissent. Of course, a punt-gun, 

 especially one of the latest swivel-action, breech-loading, non-recoil guns, 

 will enable a sportsman to bring birds to bag that he could not otherwise 



