172 lNrj)IAN DICKS. 



Their food is undoubtedly mainly vegetable, but they do not despise ^vol•nls, 

 insects, &c., which may come in their way. For the purpose of obtaining 

 food their diving is said not to extend beyond tlie peculiar semi-dive so 

 much indulged in by the domestic duck, which leaves the tail-end well 

 out of water. 



They are excellent eating, and, however poor in ectndition they mav l)e, 

 never seem to get an objectionable flavour ; so good are they to eat, 

 indeed, that they are often kept in Tealeries in Western and Northern 

 India, so as to be available during the hot weather and rains. 1 have no 

 personal knowledge of such Tealeries, and as Hume's account of what 

 they should lie is al)Out as full and good a one as it is possible to have, I 

 must again indent on that much-quoted author. He says : — "Fresh water, 

 and plenty of it, is the first requisite, and to ensure this the Tealery 

 should always be located near the well, and every dro[) of water di'awn 

 thence for irrigating the garden made to })ass through it. The site 

 should be, if possible, under some large umlirageous trees, such as we so 

 connuonly find near garden walls, and to the east of the trunk, so that the 

 building may be completely protected from the noontide and afternoon 

 sun. You first make a shallow masonary tank, 12 feet by 8 and 10 inches 

 in depth is amply large, -i feet distant from this all round vou l)uild a 

 thick mud wall to a height of 3 feet from the interior. The whole 

 interior surface of this wall and the flat s[)ace between it and the tank 

 must 1)6 lined with pukka masonry, and finished off with well worked 

 chunam. The great })oints to be aimed at are to have the whole lower 

 parts so finished off as to be on the one hand im})regnable to rats, 

 ichneumons, and snakes; on the other to present no crevice in which dirt. 

 ticks, and other insects can lurk. ( Jutside the ^\alls must be quite smooth, 

 so that no snakes can crawl u}) them. On the wall you l)uild stout square 

 })illars, 4 feet high, on which you })lace a thick pent thatched roof. At 

 the spring of the i-oof you stretch inside a thin, i-ather loose ceiling-cloth, 

 to prevent the liirds hurting their heads when they start up suddenl}', as 

 they will at first, on any alarm, and especially when the sweeper goes in to 

 wash out the place. The interspaces between the pillars you fill in with 

 well made cross work (Jaffri) of s})lit l)and)oo, except one of them, in 

 which you place a door of similar work made with slips of wocxl. You 

 must arranoe that all the water both enters and leaves the buildino- 

 through gratings impervious to snakes and like marauders. Two or three 

 feet outside the walls run a little groove, a ditchlet, in wliicli plant early in 

 the year nudlx'ri'y cuttings, which will foi'm a good hedge i-onnd the place 



