INDIAN DOCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 459 



It makes a rather large, loose and untidy nest of soft reeds and 

 rushes, &c., lined with down and places it on the ground in swampy land 

 or by the edge of some piece of water in fen land. It does not ap- 

 pear to frequent open water even for the purposes of breeding and 

 selects places well away from observation and interference and conceals 

 its nest with great care. Hume says that the nest is a shallow depres- 

 sion in the soil made by the birds and thinly or thickly lined with 

 down or dry grass. 



The description of the down with which the nest is lined and which 

 is of course taken from the bird itself is said by Legge to be " small, 

 dark brown, with small plainly defined whitish centres." 



The eggs vary in number from seven to sixteen, eight or nine beino- 

 perhaps the number most often laid. 



The colour is a pale, but rather clear tinted, yellow stone colour, some 

 have a creamy tinge and others are slightly greenish, but a yellow- 

 grey is imdoubtedly the most common colour. 



The texture is extremely fine and close with a surface slightlv or 

 decidedly glossed. My eggs average 2*06" X 1*4" and are in shape 

 rather long ovals distinctly pointed at the smaller end. 



Hume's series measured from 2*0" to 2*2" in length and from 1-83" 

 to 1"55" in breadth. 



Genus MARMARONETTA. 



The genus Marmaronetta contains a single species only with a bill 

 similar to that of Nettion, but differing from that genus in havino- no 

 wing speculum. Its coloration, which gives a silvery grey tone to 

 the plumage when taken as a whole effect, is quite sufficient to at 

 once distinguish it from all other ducks, either Indian or otherwise. 

 Marmaronetta angustirostris. 

 The Marbled Duck. 



Querquedula angustirostris. — Hume, " Str. Feath.," I, p. 262 ; Ander- 

 son, il'd, III, p. 278; Butler, ibid, IV, p. SO ; id., ibid, V,p. 234; Hume 

 and Marshall, " Game Birds of India," III, p. 237; Reid, " Str. Feath.", 

 X, p. 82; McLeod, ibid. p. 168; Hume, ibid, p. 174. 



Chaulelasmus angustirostris, — Hume, "Str. Feath.", VII, p. 493; (bid 

 Cat. No. 961 bis ; Barnes, " Birds of Bombay," p. 405 ; Hume's " Nests, 

 and Eggs," 2nd ed., Ill, p. 291 ; Barnes, Journal, Bombay Natural 

 History Society, VI, p. 291. 



