COTTON-TEAL 47 



the female in her search of a nesting-site in the trees ; such 

 a site is a hole, or tbe place where several large branches 

 diverge ; an old nest of another large bird has been used, and 

 even a hole in a bank ; and the nest has even been said to be 

 sometimes placed on the ground among rushes by the water. 

 The eggs are of an unusually polished appearance for a duck's, 

 and yellowish-white ; about a dozen are laid, some time between 

 June and September. The ducklings in down are brown and 

 white above and white below. 



The nukta is as well off for names as might be expected ; 

 in Telugu it is Jutu chiUuiva, in Canarese Dod sarle haki, and 

 in Uriya Nakihansa ; Neerkoli is the name in Coimbatore, and 

 Tau-hal in Burma, though the Karens call it Boickhang. 



Cotton-Tcal. 



Nettopus coromandelianus. Girri, Hindustani. 



The jolly little cotton-teal, smallest of Indian ducks, is not a 

 teal properly speaking, and is indeed sometimes considered to be 

 a kind of goose ; this, however, is also wide of the mark, and the 

 bird and its few relatives really stand very much alone, their 

 nearest aliy probably being the nukta. 



In fact, the male's coloration is very much that of the 

 nukta drake in miniature, the lustrous green of the upper-parts 

 and wings contrasting with the general white hue of the head 

 and under-parts and the grey flanks : but the broad black neck- 

 lace is very distinctive, as is also the white patch on the pinion- 

 quills, only noticeable in flight, but then very conspicuous. The 

 female is brown above and shades into white below ; there is a 

 dark eye-streak as well as a dark cap, and the neck has dark 

 specklings running into cross pencilling below ; she is also like a 

 miniature nukta in colour, but the resemblance in this case is to 

 the immature plumage of the big bird. On the water she looks 

 all brown, and is not conspicuous ; the male, among leaves, may 

 also be very unobtrusive, his green back and white head giving 

 the impression of water-lilies with white flowers — this is not 

 mere theory, for I have made this mistake myself, having at 

 first taken the heads of the drakes of a flock of cotton-teal for 



