WHITE-EYED DUCK 203 



Food. Judging by the almost universally harsh opinion as to the quality of the 

 flesh it seems certain that they take an unusual amount of animal food, especially 

 in India. In Europe, where the flesh is not in such very low repute it seems to feed 

 a good deal on the roots, shoots, leaves, and seeds of water plants. Remnants of 

 Polygonum, Potamogeton, Nymphcea, Carex and Lemna have been found in stomachs, 

 and they are said to be especially partial to the hard Potamogeton seeds which they 

 swallow together with a good deal of sand and gravel. The animal food was found 

 to include " rain-worms," small shells, large and small Libellulce and their larvae, 

 Phryganeidce and other insects (Naumann, 1896-1905). 



In India Hume and Marshall (1879) considered them quite omnivorous, though 

 chiefly vegetable feeders. Besides ordinary water plants and their seeds he noted 

 in their stomachs delicate fresh-water shells and shrimps, insects (including several 

 species of Neuroptera and Lepidoptera!) and their larvae, worms, grubs and small 

 fishes. They noted that besides diving for food these ducks pick up part of their 

 living while swimming, "nibbling at the herbage or picking shells or insects off the 

 lotus leaves." They often re-appeared after a dive with a whole bunch of feathery 

 weeds, which all present joined in gobbling up. 



Baker (1921) does not entirely agree with Hume and Marshall, placing the animal 

 food in India at 75% of the whole. Specimens he shot in the Diyang hill-streams 

 had, in addition to caddis grubs, dragon-fly larvae and similar material, quite a 

 number of small fish, some of them three inches in length and most of them belong- 

 ing to the "Miller's Thumb" species, a sluggish fish easily secured by these agile 

 birds. 



Courtship and Nesting. In Europe these ducks arrive on their breeding 

 grounds in small companies toward the end of March, and immediately scatter about 

 their nesting quarters. Naumann's account of their behavior in spring, as observed 

 by him in Germany, is well worth summarizing. He speaks of the female being 

 followed by several males who very soon come to blows. No duck, he says, is so 

 quarrelsome as this one during the nesting period. They squabble so fiercely that 

 they entirely forget their surroundings, until warned of approaching danger by the 

 watchful females. The female is often obliged to seek refuge from the crowd of 

 suitors in the thickest clumps of reeds, but once she makes her choice she slips away 

 with her chosen mate into some retired spot, distant from the rest of the scolding 

 company. Finally only the superfluous males remain, who not infrequently disturb 

 the mated pairs, but at length leave the vicinity for good. I do not know whether 

 others have noticed a like quarrelsomeness in the White-eye. All ducks are restless 

 and full of mimic battles in the spring, but these seldom reach the status of a real 

 quarrel, for they are too transitory. This bird is not quarrelsome in confinement. 



Certain characteristics of the courtship were first pointed out by Finn (1902). It 



