Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/202

186 so little duck-shooting to be had in the vicinity of Bombay. The ducks are here, and they feed wherever there is food, but they get away before day-light and sleep on the open sea. All through the cold season you may hear the sound of wings at night, as a flock passes overhead, in places where you will look for them in vain by day.

I need not try to describe the different species of wild Ducks, for a man who does not shoot will not easily learn to distinguish one from another, but he may know enough not to confound them with the Coot, which has already been described, or with the Cormorant. The little Cormorant (Graculus javanicus in Jerdon) is a very common bird on this coast, especially up the creeks, and I daresay it often passes for a sort of black Duck, but it differs from a Duck as a gentleman differs from a loafer. The Cormorant is a thoroughly shabby bird, with a large, ragged tail, and coloured all over a sordid black, like the Sunday coat of a Goanese cook. At least, this is its aspect at a distance. In its habits also it is unlike a Duck. It seldom rests on the water, but perches on rocks, or even on trees, sitting very upright. It flies well, but generally at no great height and slowly, compared with a wild Duck; not in orderly flocks either, but singly, or in small, loose parties. Its beak is not flat, but narrow and a little hooked at the tip, the use of it being to catch and hold a slippery fish, for the Cormorant is a fisher by trade. The Chinese tame them and employ them as divers, fitting a ring on their neck to prevent them swallowing what they catch, which seems mean. The Hindoo fisherman is not so ingenious as the Chinaman and has not discovered this use