Identifier: indiansportingbi00finn (find matches)
Title: Indian sporting birds
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Finn, Frank, 1868-1932 Hume, Allan Octavian, 1829-1912 Marshall, Charles Henry Tilson, 1841-
Subjects: Birds -- India Game and game-birds -- India
Publisher: London : Francis Edwards
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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-fowl, the peregrine falcon, thetiny duck side-skidding from the stoop most dexterously, andbeing below water before the enemy had recovered itself. Theflight is generally low, but when thoroughly frightened thebirds will go higher. The only weak point of the cotton-teal, in fact, is its walkingpowers ; it is very seldom seen on land, and when it tries to go fastor to turn round is apt to fall down ; but it is not correct to say itcannot walk at all, as when not hurried it moves on land likeother ducks, though slowly and clumsily. This leg-weakness iscurious, as it is a perching-bird, roosting and building in trees,so that one would expect it to be at least as strong in the legs asother water-fowl, the perchers being usually good walkers also. The food of the cotton-teal is mainly vegetable ; it seems tofeed almost entirely on the surface, and pecks rather thanbibbles in the usual duck fashion ; it does not stand on its beadand investigate the bottom like other ducks. As food it is no
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.^«ir O LdQ O o S: f MANDARIN DUCK 49 better than a coiumon house-pigeon, and as it is so very small,only weighing about ten ounces, and is very tame in manyplaces, it is commonly thought hardly worth shooting, besideswhich it is such a nice little bird that shooting it is rather likefiring at a robin or a squirrel; it does not seem right to makegame of it. The breeding season does not begin before the endof June, and lasts till August; the birds moult after this, andthe drake has his undress plumage in the winter, unlike mostother ducks. Holes in buildings as well as holes in trees may beutilized for nesting, and there is reason to believe that theparents, at any rate the female, carry down the little brown andwhite ducklings like the whistler. The eggs are like miniaturenuktas eggs, remarkable for their smoothness and yellowish-white colour; ten is the usual number of the sitting. The note of the male is one of the noteworthy peculiarities ofthis pretty little creature; he often ca

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