13() IXDIAN DUCKS. 



Surma, Barak, or any other of this notwork of rivers, though it is probahlo 

 in the extreme that they may he met ^vitll liere and there on any ot" them. 



It appears to be entirely a fresh^vater duck, and this Avouhl he 

 sufficient to account for its comparative absence from the Sunderbunds and 

 their tidal and brackish waters. Whether it occurs on tlie Chilka Lake — 

 also of brackish water — I cannot say. 



The Spot-bill is, in every sense of the word, one of the finest and most 

 game of our ducks. Even larger on an average than the Mallard, it fully 

 rivals that bird for the table, and is, I think, more miiform in its good 

 condition ; this no doubt is due to the fact that it has not to overtax its 

 strength in long migrations. It is a strong flyer, though h^ss (juick in 

 rising and not so speedy in getting under way as is the Mallard. When 

 it just rises, Hume compares it to an old hen, such a noise and flurry does 

 it make, but the pace it puts on once it is fairly started compensates for 

 its slowness at first. It is })erhaps an easier bird than most of its size and 

 weight to bring down when hit, owing to its plumage being rather less 

 dense than that of many other ducks. Even when brouoht down, however, 

 it is not necessarily brought to bag at once, as it is a most expert diver, 

 and is one of those ducks which dive and grasp the weeds under the water, 

 and so keep hidden below the surface ; more often, though, they rise, but 

 only high enough to allow of the tip of the bill protruding. Hume, 

 Butler, and others have recovered birds quite dead, drowned through 

 holding on to the weeds a little too long below the water. If winoed, so 

 as to render diving either painful or impossible (a twisted wing prevents 

 most ducks from diving), it will make for the nearest cover ; indeed Woods 

 informs me that he has found that the majority of those he has wounded 

 without killing outright have taken this means of trying to avoid capture ; 

 at the same time, he adds that they both dive and swim well. 



Most writers agree that the voice of the Spot-bill and of the Mallard 

 are very much alike : but Hume considers that the quack of the former 

 is the more sonorous. I cannot say that I have noticed any difference 

 between the two. 



They are not shy birds, and until they have been much shot at can 

 generally be approached near enough for a shot fairly easily. 



They are principally vegetable-feeders, and do a good deal of damage 

 to rice, both wdien young and when in the ear, trampling down a great 

 deal more than they eat ; they also, at times, eat all sorts of miscel- 

 laneous food, such as water- mollusca, frogs, worms, insects, c^^c. Woods 

 observes that the places where they feed can generally be detected at a 



