Page:The Aristocracy of Southern India.djvu/135

Rh miles, with an average width of ten miles. It is separated from the sea by a narrow sandy plain, but is bordered on its inland side by a varied and beautiful margin of hill and woodland. The lake is fed by a branch of the Mahanuddi (which joins the sea near Pooree), and during the rains its surplus waters cut their way to the sea at the narrowest point of the intervening plain, by a channel which remains open to the tide for the greater part of the year.

"Thus the Chilka is neither wholly salt nor wholly fresh; but it is full of fish, produces immense quantities of prawns, and is in consequence the resort of great numbers of wild fowl. Pelicans and cormorants of different sorts fish its waters, and waders of all sizes and species feed along its shores. The osprey and the fish-hawk are always to be seen there, and vast flocks of wild duck and teal of many varieties make it their favourite haunt.

"Among the rocks at the base of the hills which here and there descend into the lake, colonists of others find a congenial home, and where there is space for a margin of green turf, the peafowl steals out from among the over-hanging bamboo clumps, morning and evening, to pick up small marine insects.

"Several islands are scattered about the lake, some flat and rush-grown, where water-rail and teal, and some other species breed, and where collectors of eggs may find specimens not often procurable. But the most remarkable of the group is Bird Island, a high pile of boulders at the southern end of the lake, and distant about two miles from the shore. It is greatly favoured by birds of many sorts as a breeding-place.