up and secure as many as possible. Unless you are all very
" spry," a good many of those which have been entangled
somehow get away. If there are many, it is best to pluck up
the poles rapidly, and throw the net down on the water, the
fowl undermost; and when you have flushed a little too soon,
and the mass of the birds are high in the net, you must do this.
Not only Wild Fowl, but Geese, Godwit, and Curlew, and all
kinds of waders arc often found securely meshed. I have had
the net completely thrown down by a heavy haul of Geese,
(I think we secured seventy of them), and I have, on several
occasions, bagged over 200 birds of sorts in a single drive.
On the other hand, many and many a drive has yielded only
half a dozen Teal and Godwit. Most certainly this is very
exciting sport, requiring a great deal of skill and organization,
and thorough training of your men ; and as in a properly chosen
jhfl, you ought never to get (over the tops of your marsh boots,
it has for you no drawbacks, but your men must be well fed
and have good blankets, and be looked after a good deal, or
they will all get fever. It is no use paying them well; they will
always stint themselves. You must give them free rations,
plenty of gur and gki, and a sheep now and then, and see they
eat it. The same men will manage your nets for fishing, (they
should be Mullahs and Kakars), and make themselves useful in
many ways ; and, though the " plant" is a little expensive to
begin with, (properly taken care of it will last for years,) and
you will want at least six and probably ten men, as permanent
servants for the five months, you will certainly get your money's
worth, if you arc marching in a country full of jhils, and
abounding in Water Fowl and Fish.
The third method is by fall nets, set in a place where Fowl habitually
feed, and which is regularly baited for them with grain.
Natives undoubtedly are very successful with these nets, but
I have never been so, and as I have already referred to this plan
{ante note, p. 37) I need say no more about it now.
Certainly, in my opinion, a Mallard in good condition is the
very best Duck for the table that we have in India. The
Common Teal and Pintail come next, and Grey Duck, Gadwall
and both the Red-headed and Red-crested Pochards are often
excellent, but a good Mallard is facile princeps.
THE MALLARD breeds in vast numbers in Cashmere, and possibly
a few breed elsewhere in the Himalayas, at moderate elevations.
Brooks found a pair for instance, in the middle of May, on a small
mountain tarn, above Derali in the valley of the Bhagirathi, which
very possibly would have bred there, and I have heard of other
pairs being met with even later at small secluded lakelets in
various parts of the Western Himalayas, at elevations of from
5,000 to 9,000 feet. So too, as already mentioned, it is just
possible that here and there a stray pair may remain to breed
in swamps about the southern bases of the Himalayas from
Hazara to Nepal, but the only locality in which we certainly
know of their nesting is Kashmir. There it breeds, not only
about most of the lakes in greater or lesser numbers, but even in
still reaches of mountain streams, at the edges of water courses,
and in rice fields.
The nest is almost invariably placed upon the ground, in
thick low cover of grass, rushes, or rice ; but the native egggatherers
report that they have found nests on trees. The
nest is always a large, coarse structure, composed of dry grass,
rushes, and the like, more or less lined with down and feathers.
It lays in May and the first-half of June. Twelve is the
largest number of eggs seen in any nest by my collector (a
native), who examined hundreds of them. There is quite a
trade in the eggs of this species and Fuligula nyroca at Srinugger,
and my man went out daily almost for a month in one
of the egging boats. The boatmen told him that they had
found as many as sixteen eggs in one Mallard's nest!
" Frequently in leaving the nest," says Macgillivray, " she
covers it rudely with straws and feathers, probably for the
purpose of concealing the eggs. The young are hatched in
four weeks ; and, being covered with stiffish down, and quite
alert, accompany their mother to the water, where they swim
and dive as expertly as if they had been born in it. The
mother shows the greatest attention to them, protects them
from birds, feigns lameness to withdraw intruders from them,
and, leading them about from place to place, secures for them
a proper supply of food."
Mr. Brooks say in epistold :—" The Mallard's nest I took was
amongst rushes in a rather dry spot of one of the Kashmir
lakes ; it was built of straw and dry rushes, and lined with the
bird's own down."
The late Major Cock wrote to me that this species "breeds
in large numbers on the Anchar Dall and other lakes in Kashmir
during the months of May and June; boat loads of
their eggs are brought to the Srinugger bazars for sale, together
with the eggs of the Coot and White-eyed Duck. The Mallard
breeds near the water in among reeds or high grass, lays six,
eight, or more eggs, of a peculiar oil green colour. The nest is
formed of dried grass or flag with a little down from the bird's
breast, and placed under an overhanging tuft of grass or rush.
The female sits close and allows you to come very near before she
leaves her eggs." I may add that she will not unfrequently
allow herself to be captured by hand on the nest, if the eggs
are near hatching.
The eggs of the Mallard vary a good deal in size and colour.
In shape they differ little, and are moderately broad, regular
ovals, not unfrequently slightly compressed towards one end.
W