16 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XII. 



bundles affording a floating rest for their guns and also concealing the 

 approach of the shooter. 



Hume says ; *' The breeding season varies a great deal with locality. 

 In the North-West Provinces, Oudh, and the eastern portions of Raj- 

 putana and the Punjab, it only In-eeds, so fur as I yet know, once a year, 

 paying during the latter half of July, August, and the first half of 

 September. In Sind it lays in April and May and again in September 

 and October. In Guzerat it certainly lays in October, and in Mysore 

 in November and December, though whether in these two last-named 

 provinces also it has a second spring brood I have not yet ascertained." 



In Bengal, I think, it lays principally in July and August ; but a few 

 birds are earlier, and these may liave a second brood, for nests have been 

 taken as late as October. 



As a rule the nest is rather a compact, well-made structure, of a broad 

 rather irregular cup-shape, made principally of grasses, rushes and 

 weeds, and lined in almost all cases with down taken from the breasts 

 of the ducks themselves. Sometimes there is no down at all, as 

 in the nests taken by Captain Butler at Langraij between Deesa and 

 Ahmedabad. 



Captain G. F. L. Marshall gives the dunensions of a nest taken by him 

 as follows : " About inches across, 3 inches deep, and the sides 

 fully 2 inches thick." This is perhaps a trifle smaller than the average 

 nest, as the size depends so nnich on the compactness with which it is 

 built. 



Surgeon-Captain Woods sends me very interesting notes oa the breed- 

 ing of this duck. He writes : " Here the birds generally pair about 

 the beginning of April ; but I have found a nest in a flooded dhan khet 

 as late as Octolier. The nests are composed of grass and feathers, the 

 latter of which the parent birds pluck from their own breasts. 



" I have found as many as 14 eggs in a nest, though the usual 

 number is 10. The parent bird sits very close when incubating, and 

 when alarmed feigns injury to a wing, as do others of the family. 



" Towards the end of the rains both old and young birds frequent more 

 open water and the flooded rice-fields. A place called the Kurram path, 

 about 18 miles from Imphal, is a favourite breeding-ground, and towards 

 the end of the rains the ducks may there be seen in hundreds with flap- 

 pers in every stage of development." 



