by a very nearly allied species, (long confounded with our bird,)
A. zonorhynclia, 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 arc rare),
while on the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus they arc 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. Not that they arc 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 in a 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. Sometimes
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
diving for a considerable distance, took refuge in a thick mass
of weeds at the bottom of the tank (three feet deep) from which
moist retreat he was extracted by one of the beaters who
accidentally trod on him when walking through the water in
search of one of the others."
Many a time have I recovered them, dead under water, firmly
fixed to the weeds, and many more I have failed to retrieve
even with the help of good dogs.
Their plumage is less dense than that of the Mallard, and
to this I attribute the undoubted fact that they are decidedly
easier to bring down at long distances.
Their voices, both when chattering to each other, when at
rest or feeding, and when uttering their quacks of alarm, closely
resemble those of the Mallard, but may always be distinguished
by a somewhat great sharpness ; they are not so sonorous, but
they seem to be emitted with greater force.
They are very miscellaneous feeders, and I have found worms,
small frogs, and insects and their larva in their stomachs ; but
grain (wild rice by preference), and all kinds of rush, grass and
water-plants and their roots constitute the bulk of their food,
and I have often examined birds which had fed on vegetable
matter only. I have been told that they sometimes have a
very fishy flavour, but I have never yet found the remains of
fish in any single specimen.
Usually this species is met with in pairs or small parties,
but where numerous, they may occasionally be seen in comparatively
large flocks. Thus Major Charles Mclnroy writes : " I
have frequently seen at least 100 of these Ducks sitting together
on the shores of various tanks in the Mysore Province,
and these kept together when on the wing, although it is doubtless
more common for the various families to keep to a certain
extent separate."
And Mr. George Reid says :—" During the rains it is usually
seen in pairs, frequenting small and weedy jhfls or swamps ;
but in the cold weather it is compelled to resort to the larger
lakes, and may then be met with in flocks ranging from 6 to
about 30 in number."
Personally I cannot remember ever seeing more than a
dozen together; and, though I have often found from fifty
to a hundred on a large lake like the Manchar, or the Najafgarh
in the pre-drainage time, these have invariably been dotted
about the lake in pairs, or in families, (as I take it,) of from
three to ten individuals.
They do not consort readily with other fowl, and it is rare
to find them mixed up with these ; indeed if not quite by
themselves, as they usually are, they seem only to associate
with Teal and Shovellers.
For the table the Grey Duck is second only to the Mallard and
Pintail, and it is such a large fine heavy bird, that, as Captain