242 INDIAN DUCKS. 



Pochard may be ol)tained in no inconsiderable numbers ; at the >ame time 

 it is unusual to find them in any l>at small parties and pairs, and single 

 birds are more often to be met with than even such. Sometimes, however, 

 they do consort in very large numbers, vide Hume, who says : •• single 

 birds or small parties may be found on almost an}' broads in which the 

 water is tolerably deep in some places, but the huge flocks in which they 

 love to congregate are only met with on large lakes, such as I have above 

 referred to. 



" At the Manehar Lake I saw two enormous flocks. I have repeatedly 

 seen similar flocks in old times at the Najjafgarh and other vast jhils in 

 the Punjaub, the Xorth-West Provinces, and Oudh ; and I should guess 

 that at the Kunkrowli Lake, in Oodeypore, there must have been nearly 

 ten thousand, covering the whole centre of the lake." 



Such flocks as these are, however, only to be met with in the provinces 

 mentioned ; in the eastern provinces a flock of forty is very large, and 

 about all we may expect to meet with. 



Just as expert as are the rest of Pochards on or in the watei-, it 

 excels the majority of these — perhaps not uV. haeri — in getting away 

 from it. It rises with less fluster, noise, and sjjlashing than is caused by 

 the rising of other Pochards, and also gets off the water more quickly 

 and gets more quickly into its stride, if I may use such an expression. 

 Indeed, when frightened, it flies at a great pace, nearly equalling the 

 Pintail, and exceeding most other ducks. On land, however, feeble as 

 are other Pochards, this, according to Finn, is -worse still. He says, in 

 the 'Asian ' : " On land it moves more awkwardlv than any other Pochard 

 I know, holibling as if lame in both feet." 



However abundant it may be, the Tufted Pochard does not, as a rule, 

 form a very large portion of a bag in a day's shoot. Tliis is due to the 

 difficulty, first, in approaching the birds — for they are decidedly wild and 

 shy, — and, secondly, in getting a shot when once one has got within reach. 

 If the bird does not escape at once by diving, swimming, or flight, it is 

 sure to dive before, at any rate, the sportsman has time to get a shot, and 

 once it has seen him and had its first dive it is very problematical as to 

 whether he will ever get a shot again. It is worth rememl)ering, should 

 one come across a flock in any large piece of water, Hume's maxim that 

 Tufted Pochards will not leave the water they are on until after dark. 

 He gives one of his usual graphic descriptions of a shoot in which Tufted 

 Pochards played the principal part, and describes how, after a fusilade 



