236 INDIAN rrcKS. 



was uot mistaken ; liut if tlicy were tho coiiiinon form of yoiui;j; bird 

 foiiiid in India as a i-u](^, lie miglit very woll indeed luive heen mistaken. 

 It was an unusual tiling, too, that ho should liave soon seceral birds when 

 they are of such rare occurrence. On the other hand, I think there is no 

 doubt that a great many young birds are yearly missed owing to these 

 being mistaken for young Pochards of other kinds. 



In addition to those already recorded, I have had the following ])ass 

 through my hands : — A fine adult male, procured in the Calcutta Bazaar 

 in 1907, but relieve it was taken the dealer could not tell me. A young- 

 female sent me as a specimen of the Eastern White-eye, from Chittagong, 

 and shot on the coast. A young female shot by Mr. Moore in Lakhim))ur 

 in January 1904. Finally, two specimens shot by myself in the same 

 district — one in March 1902 and one in November 1903. On the former 

 occasion the bird was a single one in com})any with a tiight of Crested 

 Pochards ; on the second occasion there was a flock of ahout a dozen ])ii-ds, 

 but after I had shot one and missed another, as they were driven overhead, 

 I never saw them again. 



Possibly the most likely jdace for this ])ird to be m(>t with in India 

 would be the coast about the Gulf of Cutch, and north to Karaclii, as the 

 fScaup, by preference, is a sea bird. Such as are met with in India are 

 doubtless " moving on ^' in hopes of getting to some coast eventually. 

 Even in (yhina they wander further south along the coast, and are far 

 more commonly met with there than they are inland. When they are 

 met with inland it will ])e generally found that they keo]) to great lak<>s, 

 such as Lake Baikal, Lake Balkast, and Sea of Ural, kc. ; in these vast 

 extents of water they can live, according to tlunr wont, on the water 

 altogether, neither taking to land nor air, except in cases of emergency, 

 and spending their time diving for food or resting asleep on it just as they 

 would on the sea itself. 



Capt. Wall has recorded it from Oudh, and quotes a])stracts from the 

 Sporting Diary of the Rev. J. Gompertz, which shows that gentleman to 

 have shot no less than 11 specimens between 1897 and 1904 inclusive, all 

 in Oudh. 



Although, once well away on the wing, the flight of the Scaup is fairly 

 fast and strong, they are exceedingly slow and clumsy in getting off the 

 water, their maimer of so doing having been likened by various observers 

 to that of the Coot ; that is to say, they rise very obliquely, splashing 

 noisily along the surface of the water for some yards before getting clear 

 of it, and, once clear, still taking some time to get up their speed. When 

 driven, however, from a long distance, enabling them to get up their 



