VJ2 INDIAN DUCKS. 



frequenting small, (|uick-runiiino; streams, or small clean tanks and })onds, 

 and being specially partial to wide stretches of fen or bheel, well covered 

 over their greater extent with weeds, yet having fairly extensive [)atches 

 of clear water dotted here and there over their surface. 



During the day they keep almost entirely to the larger sheets of water 

 or, sometimes, to the large rivers, such as Indus, Ganges, &c., where they 

 float in the centre in dense, closely-packed masses. This manner of 

 packing is very characteristic of the Garganey, and they keep more closely 

 together than does any other kind of duck ; even when flying they do not 

 straggle much. They feed in the smaller tanks and jhils, and also in tlu^ 

 paddy-fields, and on various young land-cro})S. Hume says that in some 

 parts of India they visit the paddy-fields in such numbers that on one 

 visit acres of paddy are destroyed. Their sta})le diet is vegetarian, and of 

 vegetable matter the staple articles are rice, both cultivated and wild, 

 and the young leaves and shoots of various water-plants. They also eat 

 various kinds of reeds, roots, &c., and such animal matter in the shape of 

 worms, snails, and shell-fish, &c. which force themselves on their notice. 



Hume describes well the sound of their flight thus : — '" AVlietlier it is 

 only because one habitually meets them in such large flocks, or whether it 

 is really peculiar to them, I do not know ; but certainly one associates the 

 overhead flight of this species with the surging hiss, more even, sustained, 

 and rushing than that of any of our other ducks. Anyone who has stood 

 under heavy round-shot fire knows the way in which shot hurtle up to 

 you crescendo, and die away as they i)ass ; and just in this way (though 

 the sounds are in a wholly different key) does the swish of a large flock of 

 Garganey surge up to you in the middle of the night, and die awavas tluy 

 pass.- 



I do not think that it is because the birds are numerous or familiar 

 that we think the sound distinct from that of other birds' flio;ht. I 

 remember when first introduced to the Garganey how I was struck with 

 the pattering swish of their flight, and then noticed how like a whistle it 

 rose and fell as it approached and vanished. Their flight is but little, if at 

 all, inferior to that of the Common Teal, though more direct, the flights 

 seldom indulging in the swift dodgings and swervings of that bird. 

 Shooting over the vast Jessore bheels in boats, which went in a thinly 

 scattered line through them, the difference between the flight of the two 

 species was well shown. The Garganeys rose far ahead, swept round l)ut 

 once in a wide semicircle, and then went straight ahead, whereas the 

 Common Teal often dodged in and out down the whole line, circled about 



