INDIAN SPOT-BILL 93 
winged so as to make diving painful and impossible, they make for the nearest 
cover. 
Due no doubt to their shorter wings and their non-migratory habits, they rise 
less easily than the Mallard. But once on the wing they fly as fast as the common 
northern ducks. Hume and Marshall (1879) compare their rather heavy “get- 
away” to that of an old hen. During the rains, just before the nesting season, they 
travel about in pairs, and even in the cold season, when they gather on larger sheets 
of water, they are found scattered about in small family parties. Hume and Marshall 
(1879) say they have never seen parties of more than a dozen, but quote Reid as 
having seen as many as thirty in a flock, and Mclnroy who claims to have “fre- 
quently seen at least a hundred of these ducks sitting together on the shores of 
various tanks in the Mysore Province”; the latter adds that they kept together 
when on the wing. 
Association with othee Species. Hume and Marshall (1879) foimd the Spot- 
bill an unsociable bird, mingling rarely with other species. At most it may be found 
in company with Teal or Shoveller. Woods (in Baker, 1908) think she has often 
seen solitary Spot-bills piloting a flock of Teal across a jheel. 
Voice. In the only pair which I myself kept I never remarked anything peculiar 
about the note. Most writers agree in saying that the voice is exactly like that of 
the Mallard. Hume and Marshall (1879) alone consider the notes somewhat more 
sharp, not so sonorous, but apparently emitted with greater force than in the Mallard. 
Of course slight differences in voice between two different species of Mallard-like 
ducks are extremely difficult to estimate, because Mallards themselves show a great 
range of individual variation in this respect. This variation I think is dependent 
somewhat on age, for the younger birds sound a bit shriller. 
Food. The Spot-bills are omnivorous feeders, most likely preferring animal food 
when they can obtain it readily, but also taking much vegetable matter and doing 
much damage to the rice, both when it is young and when in the ear. Baker (1908) 
thinks they are principally vegetable feeders, but Hume and Marshall (1879) 
mention as animal food, worms, small frogs, and insects and their larvae. Three 
stomachs examined by Mason and Lefroy (1912) all contained some animal food, 
chiefly water-snails {Vivipara crassa) and in one case a small frog. 
Courtship and Nesting. As with most tropical ducks, the breeding season is 
very variable, extending, in India, from April to October. In the Northwest it breeds 
from the middle of July to the middle of September. In Sind it is said to lay in April 
and May and again in September and October, but it is more than doubtful whether 
