1890.] THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



203 



Sabli, but perhaps that was because the reeds though thick, were not 

 sufficiently thick. This Pochard flies swiftly and offers a very 

 sporting shot. It takes a fairly heavy blow to bring it down, and if 

 only winged it is a most difficult bird to retrieve, for it can dive a very 

 long distance, and if fired at on the water always seems to be under 

 before the shot can reach it. 



This Pochard is not easily driven away from its haunts, and when 

 put up will fly round and round a tank a number of times, and some- 

 times even go down again in spite of the noise of frequent gunshots. 

 Consequently after a reedy tank has been beaten, and all other ducks 

 have been driven away, a couple or two of White-eyes may often be 

 bagged by wading through the reeds, wherever the water is shallow 

 enough to allow of that being done. I ought to say that although so 

 slow to leave a tank, the White-eye when flying round, is quite 

 sufficiently wide awake not to come within gun shot of any person 

 who is not well concealed. 



I have heard that specimens of this duck are sometimes shot that 

 have~lost their feet, which presumably had been frozen off somewhere 

 in the cold north. 



The flesh of the White-eye is very good, but this species is not 

 quite in the first class of ducks for the table. I saw two other species 

 of Pochard while I was in Gujerat, though I did not kill a specimen 

 of either species. One was the Red-headed Pochard, or Dun bird, 

 Ay thy a Ferina, Linnaeus, well known in this country and common in 

 most parts of India. 1 only noticed this species on one occasion, when 

 I saw a flock of some twenty or so on an open medium sized tank 

 close to a village. Here they had got so tame that they were not 

 much wilder than the ducks on the Serpentine, so instead of shooting 

 them I sat down on the bank to watch them, to the infinite disgust of 

 my Shikari. A very pretty sight they were too, quietly feeding, first 

 one and then another popping under water, while within fifty or sixty 

 yards villagers bathed, and women pounded clothes, and a Sahib with 

 all his shooting paraphernalia sat down and ate his tiffin. The second 

 species was the splendid Red-crested Pochard, Branta Rufina, Pallas, 

 of which I saw two specimens, both near the Null and both on the 

 wing. The first passed within twenty yards of me when I had both 

 barrels empty, and the second utterly refused to come within shot. It 



