INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 9 



growing at the edge of the water; but at other times it is placed at some 

 distance from the water; and at others again absolutely in the water 

 itself, amongst some thick cluster of reeds or other aquatic plants. 



The nest is not alwaj-s however placed on the ground. Here in India 

 the natives say that they sometimes find the eggs in nests on trees; but 

 there seems to be no authentic record of one ever havino- been so found. 

 In England two such nests have come within my personal experience. 

 One of these was a huge construction of grass and reeds placed in the 

 head of a polled willow. There was a deep indentation where the nest 

 was placed, and the masses of twigs, then in thick foliage, quite con- 

 cealed the nest from any one on the ground. The duck was however 

 seen going in and the nest spotted. It contained eight eggs, which 

 were, I believe, all hatched and the ducklings reared in safety. 



The second nest was quite different, A huge tree (I foroet now what 

 it was), which divided in three quite close to the ground, threw out great 

 horizontal limbs over a piece of water which lay still and dark and very 

 deep beneath its shade and that of many other trees equally bio- and 

 densely foliaged. At the end of one of these boughs, and in a most 

 perilous position, on a few small twigs and branches, was the deserted 

 nest of a magpie. It was knocked out of all shape, but still formed a 

 strong platform of sticks and twigs, on which the duck placed a little 

 down and a few feathers and laid her eggs. My brothers and I were 

 small boys at the time, and of course, with the usual curiosity of small 

 l)oys, paid constant visits to the nest, not in the least resented, as far as 

 we could tell, by the duck, which never quitted it, or showed any sio-ns 

 of fear at our presence. The drake was far wilder, and seldom let us 

 get a view of him. As a rule he was swimming quietly about in the 

 pond below whilst his mate was employed in incubation; but more than 

 once we frightened him from the tree itself, where he must have been 

 perched on one of the Ijig boughs. 



The duck, we noticed, always got on one ofthe big boughs, and then 

 fluttered and scrambled awkwardly into the nest. We got one eo-o- out 

 of the water, into which slie must have knocked it; but she hatched some 

 of the eggs, and we once or twice got a glimpse of the ducklings on the 

 water. 



Another curious nest I took was in Warwickshire^ and was orioinally 

 that of a coot, of whose eggs two still remained in the nest. It was 



3 



