264 INDIAN DUCKS. 



Ranijuiij in Bengal, hut it has not been observed i'artlier r-ast nor in 

 Southern India."' To this I can add no absolutely certain I'ccord. luit I 

 think that once in 1882 I saw a flock ot' these Ijirds, five o£ them, near 

 Hazaribagh in Chota Xagpur. It is very unlikely that I could have made a 

 mistake in my identification, and I liavo no iloubt, myself, about what tliey 

 were ; still I failed to shoot one, so that the record is not a perfect one. 



In the rivers of Assam, where I expected to find this bird compara- 

 tively common in the cold weather, I have seen only two flocks — one of 

 four birds in Ranganadi, in Lakhimpur. and one of six Ijirds in thf extreme 

 north-eastern reaches of the Brahmapootra. I have also had one other 

 notification of its occurrence from the same place ; and Mr. J. Xeedham, 

 for many years Political Officer in Sadiya, told me he had occasionally met 

 them, but that he had never obtained a shot at them. 



I can find nothing further re this bird Ijeing obtained in India, beyond 

 the fact that in the British Museum Catiilogue there are three birds, 

 *' c? ? ad. et (S juv. sk.," obtained by Falconer in Bengal. As Gates 

 remarks, there is no reason why it should not be obtainfd in Xorthfrn 

 Burmah, as it extends further east and south in China. 



Even in Xorthern India it can nowhere be called a common bird, 

 though there are some places to which they resort with comparative 

 regularity, though never, it would seem, in largo numlx'rs. In Bengal it 

 is nowhere anything but a straggler, and ( 'attack would appear to be its 

 extreme limit south. 



In its northern homes the Smew o-enorallv congregates in flocks, 



numbering anything from a dozen or so to nearly a couple of hundred, 



flocks of over fifty being the exception. Here, in India, even the latter 



number is very exceptional indeed, and most birds are seen in comparatively 



small parties of a dozen to twenty. Hume mentions as few as seven, and 



I saw four together, but there seems to be no record of single birds or pairs 



having been obtained. They are as much salt as fresh water birds, though 



they do not seem to have been noticed on our Indian sea-coast. As might 



be expected of sea-haunting ducks, failing salt water, they keef) almost 



entirely to large open rivers and lakes ; but Hume notes : — '" I have, in 



unfrequented localities, occasionally seen them on ordinary good-sized 



jheels, covering, perhaps, barely a square mile." They are essentially diving 



ducks, and, as such, naturally prefer water unencumbered by vegetation 



and which is of considerable depth. They are wonderfully quick, active 



little birds in almost every way. On the wing they are very fast and 



istrong, though they always prefer water to air when possible ; they get 



