214 INDIAN DUCKS. 



know their ways ayoII), Init wore i>wimnuii<i; gaily on en masse, lioad to 

 wind, as they often will on windy mornings. On I went. I had a long 

 heavy English swivel, carrying a pound of shot (Xo. 1 I hud in) ; there 

 were between two and three thousand of them, as closely [tacked as they 

 could swim. I was certainly within seventy yards of the hindermost bird ; 

 I calculated to get within about forty yards of these and fire over their 

 heads into the centre of the flock. They wore close packed and backs to 

 me, so there was little to gain, and possibly a great deal to lose, by flushing 

 them. I was within fifty yards when again I grounded ; ha<l I even then 

 fired at once I must have made a very large bag, but 1 thought I knew 

 that this was only a point of a mound, and I wasted some precious moments 

 struggling to get over it with the paddles. The nearest birds must have 

 been seventy yards distant before, seeing I was hard and fast, I snapped 

 an ammunition cap on a little pistol I always carried for tlu^ purpose, and 

 raked them as they rose. The next instant there was a whole lino of birds 

 fluttering on the water, seven dead, and twenty-one winged. I recovered 

 every one of them, but it was noon before I Ijagged the last ; and if I had 

 had a desperate hard six hours' work, I hardly rememljer any six hours 

 which I more thorough!}' enjoyed.^' 



This duck breeds throughout the southern countries of Europe, in parts 

 also of Northern Africa, and in the most northern parts of its Asiatic 

 habitat, as far south as Shiraz in Persia. In Europe it is found breeding 

 occasionally in Northern Germany, France, &.C., but its true breeding- 

 haunts are further south. In Central Germany it is connnon. Hume, 

 referring to the nests taken by Dr. Baldamus, remarks : — " Dr. Baldamus, 

 who has taken many nests in Central Germany, all, however, on ' a ])ond 

 overgrown with weeds, flags, and other aquatic plants, close to the 

 Mansfelder Salt Lake,' tells us that they are always placed in the rushes 

 or flags, usually in a small island in the pond or on the flags ; and like all 

 ducks' nests, they have a foundation of rotten stems, plucked rushes, or 

 dead leaves, on which a warm bed of down plucked from the breast of the 

 female is placed. When the female leaves the nest quietly she covers her 

 eggs, as do all ducks. The eggs vary from eight to nine, ten being the 

 exception, and seven only in late sittings. All his nests were taken 

 between the 12th Juno and the 1st July, the latter nests being much 

 incubated, so that in this locality they probably lay from 1st May to 

 loth June. The eggs are only moderately broad ovals, without gloss, a 

 bright, somewhat olive-green when fresh and unblown (fading to a dull 



