A natural history of the ducks

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Identifier: naturalhistoryof01phil (find matches)
Title: A natural history of the ducks
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Phillips, John C. (John Charles), 1876-1938
Subjects: Ducks
Publisher: Boston New York : Houghton Mifflin company
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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ng into the hills.Hume speaks of its preference for moderate-sized pieces of water surrounded bytrees, and says it is absent in some treeless parts of Rajputana where other ducksabound. In spite of its partiality for lakes and ponds there are certain rivers inIndia where the species is found in tremendous numbers. Baker says, to find themon rivers or open, clean pieces of water is exceptional. In the southern Malay Penin-sula they frequent particularly, small weedy lakes surrounded by jungle, whereKelham (1882) found them in thousands from February to April. The birds leavethis region before the middle of June, only a few remaining to breed. In Ceylon,also, their habitat is the region of tanks surrounded by forests^ especially such tanksas are overgrown with lotus leaves. They are not found on the river estuaries orbrackish lagoons. Wabiness. The natural disposition of these birds is to be tame and far moretrusting than other water-fowl, even more so than the Fulvous Tree Duck. A good
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Map 14. Distribution of Lesser Whistling Teal (Dendrocygna javanwa) LESSER WHISTLING TEAL 151 idea of their confiding nature may be obtained by reading Humes remarks as to theirliving in trees growing inside the enclosures of cottages, or in some cases having beenstoned from the trees if a flying shot was desired. Several writers have described theirhabit of circling round and round the pond when flushed, a practice which oftenproves fatal to a large number. Baker (1908), however, was much surprised to findthem quite wary in the Sunderbunds. On those vast pieces of water in the delta of theGanges, they form flocks numbering thousands, which, dividing up into smallercompanies of two to three hundred, fly off to some other part of the swamp, withonly a preliminary wheel or two. Outside the limits of India they were found very tame in western Siam (Gairdner,1914), but Kelham (1882), writing of the Straits region, says they are by no meanseasy to stalk, even in places where a gun has neve

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