THE NUKHTA OR COMB DUCK, 93 
of the monsoon, and just before they breed, wander about to a 
marvellous extent, a straggler might turn up in the most 
unexpected and apparently unsuitable place. 
Just when the rains first set in, they seem to be on the wing 
at all hours of the day, and almost wherever you go in the 
North-West Provinces you see them moving about, always in 
pairs, the male, as a rule, in front, conspicuous by its much 
larger size and huge nasal protuberance, distinguishable against 
the clear sky at a great distance. 
They never, so far as I have observed, and certainly very 
rarely,* associate in flocks. There may be half a dozen pairs 
about a broad in the rains, or half a dozen families, each con- 
sisting of two old and from four to ten young birds, during the 
early part of the cold season ; but I have never seen them con- 
gregate in flocks as most Geese and so many of the Ducks do. 
Their flight is powerful and fairly rapid ; they fly better, rise 
quicker on the wing, swim more rapidly, and dive longer and 
far more adroitly than any of the Geese, though the male, at 
any rate, weighs quite as much as the majority of Barred- 
headed Geese. 
They spend little of their time dozing on banks, but keep 
mostly to the water, generally when leaving this, perching on 
trees, where, I am inclined to think, they spend a good deal of 
the night. At any rate, under certain local conditions, they 
feed a great deal by day, and cannot, therefore, in such places, 
feed as continuously by night as many other Ducks, and most 
of the Geese do. 
Their food consists chiefly of tender shoots and seeds of 
aquatic herbage, worms, larve of water insects, small shells, 
fresh-water crustaceans and occasionally a tiny fish or two. They 
do not visit, as a rule, or rob our fields much in Upper India: I 
have never found any grain, but wild rice seed, in their stomachs, 
and only once or twice have I seen them browsing on the turf 
near the water’s edge. 
Compared with most other Water Fowl they are rather tame. 
Except in quite out-of-the-way places, they will not, asa rule 
let you walk up within shot, and pot them as they swim about 
unconcernedly on the water, from a distance of thirty to forty 
yards as both the Shoveller and the Common Teal often will ; 
but during the rainy season, especially, they habitually fly past 
you within easy shot. On the water, too, it is much easier to 
work up to them in a punt than to most other Water Fowl. 
Sometimes, however, a family is very difficult to get near 
owing to their associating with one or two pairs of Brahminies, 
* Jerdon says that they are occasionally seen in flocks of above a hundred, and 
Mr. George Reid remarks: ‘‘The Nukhta is’ common in the Lucknow division 
on all grassy jhils, and is easily stalked and shot, being far from a wary bird. 
In the early morning it may frequently be seen in recently-flooded paddy fields 
and in swamps among the rushes. I have never seen it in large flocks, but parties of 
from four to ten and from twenty to thirty are common enough,” 
