in Rajputana (except in the north-western portions,') in the
Punjab, Cis-Sutlcj, the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the
Central India Agency, Chota Nagpur, Bengal, west of the
Brahmaputra, (excluding perhaps the Sunderbans, Jessore and
one or two others of the deltaic districts), the valley of Assam
right up to Sadiya, and the northern two-thirds at any rate of
Pegu,* it is more or less common, at one season or another, in
suitable localities.
It is not as yet known to visit any country outside our limits,
but I should expect it to be found hereafter in Upper or
Independent Burma.
WITHIN Tllli limits above assigned there are many more or
less extensive tracts where this species has never been observed,
and where probably it does not occur, except accidentally. Only
certain localities suit its habits, and of these many only suit it
during particular portions of the year. It is not, strictly speaking,
migratory ; but while in some few districts it really is a permanent
resident, and may be there found commonly throughout
the year, in many it is only a seasonal visitant. Thus it almost
entirely deserts the North-Western Provinces, Eastern Rajputana,
Cutch, and the Dcccan, during the dry hot season, though
it is abundant in these during the rains, and in a lesser degree
during the cold weather. On the other hand it is chiefly during
the hotter and drier parts of the year that it is found in the
damper low-lying deltaic districts of Bengal.
It is a good deal of a tree Duck, often perches on trees, generally
lays in holes of trees, and it much prefers well-wooded
tracts, not dense forest like the White-Winged Wood-duck,
but well-wooded, level, well-cultivated country. It is a lake bird
too, one that chiefly affects rush and reed-margined broads, not
bare edged pieces of water like the Sambhar Lake, and it is
comparatively rarely met with on our larger rivers. I have shot
them alike in the Ganges and the Jumna during the cold season,
but it is far more common to find them in jhils and bhfls. I
have never found it in hilly ground, and very rarely in small
ponds. Fairly large pieces of water, fringed and dotted about
with rushes and aquatic herbage, in level, well-cultivated country,
boasting a good sprinkling of large mango groves are its favourite
haunts, and with these tastes and predilections it will readily
be understood that many minor portions of the provinces
and territorial sub-divisions, which have been above included in
its range, arc more or less unsuited to it, and that in some of
these it will be rare, and in others practically unknown. Of
course in the case of birds like these, which on the first burst
* Mr. Oates says that this species is " a constant resident in Pegu ; common
in the Eugniah swamp in Upper Pegu, but not found in any quantities elsewhere.
It is not discriminated apparently by the natives from the Pintail ; at any rate both
go by the same name, 1 tau-l'ii/ or fuugle Duck."
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 consisting
of two old and from four to ten young birds, during the
early part of the cold season ; but I have never seen them congregate
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 Barredheaded
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, larva; 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, as a rule
let you walk up within shot, and pot them as the}- 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 jhtls, 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."