8 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



thus rising, offer wluit is perhaps the easiest shot, and at the same time 

 they are not increasing their distance. 



Mallard have qneer fancies, and often resort to places where one 

 could least expect them. I well remember a drake which used to 

 come, year after year, to a tiny pond on a large private garden ; there 

 were few or no weeds on the water, but it was entirely enclosed by 

 trees and in very deep shade. As soon as the breeding season was on 

 he used to go off, presumably to carry on his natural duties as a 

 husband and a father ; but he never brought back with him either wife 

 or family. There were sometimes tame duck about the place ; l)ut he 

 never seemed to care to associate with them, and kept them always at a 

 respectable distance. What renJered it more curious that he should 

 have chosen such a place was the fact that the garden was in the county 

 of Norfolk, and was surrounded by the famous broads and fens where 

 he might have obtained the society* of any number of his own kind. 



Yet another pail- used to resort every winter to a small pond joined 

 to a moat which ran round an old monastery. These were never seen 

 ou the moat itself, nor on any of the numerous ponds close to it, but 

 when disturbed — they seldom were — used to fly straight away, not to 

 return for some days or so. 



In Indian limits the Mallard breeds in vast numbers on the Kashmir 

 lakes and in smaller numbers on those in Tibet, probably also through- 

 out the Himalayas in suitable places. Hume suggests that it may also 

 b;) found to breed on swamps about the foot of these mountains ; but 

 I can find no record of their ever liaviug done so. 



As far as we know, Kashmir is the breeding place par excellence 

 of our Indian Mallards : here they are found in such great numbers 

 tliat their eggs form a veritable article of commerce, boatloads at a 

 time being collected on the shores of those lakes which they princi- 

 pally affect for Ijreeding purposes. 



The nest is a massive affair, composed of all and any materials^ 

 but principally of grasses, rushes, reeds, and similar articles. 



The lining of down and feathers varies much. I have seen a nest 

 into which one could phmge a hand to the wrist into down and feathers ; 

 and again I have seen others which had not a handful of these in the 

 whole nest. The normal ])ositi(;n of the nest is on the ground in thick 

 cover ; often it is pl'.iced in amongst the dense sedges, reeds, and bushes 



