166 THE GREY OR SPOT-BILL DUCK. 
by a very nearly allied species, (long confounded with our bird,) 
A. zonorhyncha, of Swinhoe, which, even in the adult, has no 
red patches at the base of the bill. 
To A certain extent the Grey Duck is migratory, and in the 
drier portions of the North-Western Provinces, the Punjab -and 
Rajputana, is very much more abundant during the rainy 
season and the early part of the cold weather than during the 
rest of the year. Indeed in the more desert tracts it is scarcely 
ever seen except during the monsoon. 
On the whole this species seems to prefer quiet tanks 
and small streams in fairly-wooded country ; but it may be met 
with anywhere—in village ponds, on large lakes and on the 
banks of large rivers. It is a mistake to suppose that they are 
not found in these latter. I have shot them several times on both 
the Ganges and Jumna (on both of which, however, they are rare), 
while on the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus they are quite common. 
A rushy weed-margined tank, but with a fair expanse of 
clear water is, perhaps, their favourite haunt, and in these they 
commonly keep about the centre, well out of shot, during the 
day, and feed along, (and often on,) the banks at dusk and 
during the night. Notthat they are very shy birds, or difficult to 
get near when not much molested; on the contrary they are 
very like the Mallard in these respects, and can always be 
worked up to ina punt with certainty. On rivers they will be 
found commonly on the banks, or asleep alongside these under 
the shade of some overhanging clifflet, tree or bush. Some- 
times too in quanting through beds of rushes you will flush 
them, or again find them even in broad daylight paddling in 
the shallows of some mere village pond with a few Teal and a 
brace of Shovellers. 
I do not know whether they absolutely avoid salt water, but 
I have never met with them anywhere on the sea-coast; and I 
am inclined to believe that they are essentially fresh-water birds. 
Although they rise rather heavily and are as easy to shoot 
as old hens, when they first fluster up out of the reeds, they 
fly with very great rapidity when well on the wing —in this 
respect quite equalling the Mallard ; and on the water they both 
swim and dive more briskly than this latter, as any one who 
has pursued many winged birds of both species in a native 
boat will, I am sure, admit. 
No bird gives more trouble when wounded, and Captain 
Butler only does them justice when he says :—“ The Grey Duck 
is one of the most difficult of any of the ducks to catch when 
wounded, if it once reaches the water, as it dives very freely, 
and when it rises seldom shows more than its beak above the 
water, which is by no means an easy object to see amongst 
weeds or in the rushes. One of the flappers we caught, after 
