RED-CRESTED POCHARD 111 



tent was on a masonry revetted terrace, rising immediately out of the water, I had 

 heard fowl coming in; and the next morning, before dawn, I was out in my punt, 

 working softly round the margin to the western side, so as to have the fowl, when 

 twilight broke, against the daylight sky. I soon made out by their cries that the mass 

 of the fowl were Pochards, that there were a vast number of them, and that a great 

 number of them belonged to the present species. Day dawned, and I could soon see 

 a dense mass of fowl, but far more distant than I expected, probably fully a quarter 

 of a mile off, and much too far to make anything of, even with glasses, in the dim 

 light and through the wavy curtains of almost impalpable mist that flickered above 

 the water. Lying down I paddled towards them. Very soon a fresh northeast wind 

 (and I was heading that way) sprang up against me; quite a sea rose; I was perpetu- 

 ally grounding (a few months later this whole side of the lake was one waving sea of 

 wheat), and they were swimming away steadily against the wind, so that it was 

 bright sunlight before I got within 200 yards, and then I could see that they were 

 all Red-crests. I had now got into deeper water, and went as hard as I could manage 

 without splashing, but they swam steadily away, and I must have gone fully hah a 

 mile before I had gained 100 yards on them. Still they had not shown the smallest 

 signs of suspicion (and I knew their ways well), but were swimming gaily on en 

 masse, head to wind as they often will on cold windy mornings. On I went; I had a 

 long heavy English swivel, carrying a pound of shot (No. 1 I had in) ; there were be- 

 tween two and three thousand of them as closely packed as they could swim. I 

 began to bet with myself that I should not get less than one hundred ; never had I 

 had quite such a chance, taking it all round; number of fowl, close packing, rumps 

 all towards me, my best gun. I was certainly within seventy yards of the hinder- 

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

 heads into the center of the flock. They were close packed and backs to me, so that 

 there was little to gain, and possibly a great deal to lose by flushing them. I was 

 within fifty yards when again I grounded ; had I even then fired at once, I must have 

 made a very large bag, but I thought I knew that this was only the point of a mound, 

 (a tiny island in most years) 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 the purpose, and raked them as they rose. The next instant there 

 was a whole line of birds fluttering on the water — seven dead, and twenty -one 

 winged. I recovered every one of them, but it was noon before I bagged the last, and 

 if I had had a desperate hard six hours' work, I hardly remember any six hours which 

 I more thoroughly enjoyed; and that, although it was nearly a week before, with my 

 raw hands, I could touch paddle or quant again." 



In India they seem rarely to be captured in standing nets but are not uncommonly 

 taken along with Gad wall and other ducks in fall-nets over baited ground. From 



