SAEUS CEANE 119 



are also selected. The nest is made of reeds, rushes and straw, 

 and is raised more or less above the water according to circum- 

 stances, the egg-bed being about a foot out of it. In times of 

 rains the birds raise the nest ; in fact, their nesting proceedings 

 are much hke those of the familiar tame swan at home. Some- 

 times the nest is built among high reeds, on a platform of these 

 bent and trodden down. 



They seldom show fight when their home is invaded, but 

 Hume records a case in which a hen brooding eggs, one of which 

 was actually hatching, stayed on the nest making ferocious 

 digs at a native sent by him to investigate, till he had to flap 

 her in the face with his waist-cloth to get her off ; and Mr. D. 

 Dewar, in his book, " Glimpses of Indian Birds," describes how, 

 when a man of his captured a chick, the cock bird deliberately 

 stalked them, and approached within four feet, only to be driven 

 off by hostile demonstrations. His description of the chick is 

 worth quoting: "It was," he says, "about the size of a small 

 bazaar fowl, and had perhaps been hatched three days. It was 

 covered with soft down ; the down on the upper parts was of a 

 rich reddish-fawn colour, the back of the neck, a band along 

 the backbone, and a strip on each wing being the places where 

 the colour was most intense ; these were almost chestnut in 

 hue. The lower parts were of a cream colour, into which the 

 reddish fawn merged gradually at the sides of the body. The 

 eyes were large and black. The bill was of pink hue and broad 

 at the base where the yellow lining of the mouth showed. The 

 pink of the bill was most pronounced at the base, fading almost 

 to white at the tip. The legs and feet were pale pink, the toes 

 being slightly webbed." 



Even when the young bird is fledged the head remains 

 covered with this chestnut down for a time ; the beak in adults 

 is dull green, as is the scalp, but the legs are always pink, 

 though the eyes become red. The wings do not fledge till the 

 bird is of a good size, and the old ones, at any rate in captivity, 

 lose all their quills at once, like geese, when moulting, so that 

 they must depend on fighting enemies rather than flight during 

 this season ; but no doubt they seek localities where defence 

 is easy. 



