2 BREEDING SEASONS. 
I found a nest of a kind I had long sought in vain, the whistling teal 
(Dendrocygna arcuata). These curious little ducks perch in trees and lay 
their eges in nests made of sticks and twigs in trees. The nest was in a 
babul tree, at the edge ofa large swamp, about ten feet from the ground ; 
and standing on a bank close by, I could see both parent birds seated side 
by side on the nest, with their little heads laid lovingly together, and 
their soft eyes watching me with no signs of dread. A severe mental 
struggle followed. My desire to get the eggs turned the scale, and 
{ determined on shooting both the parent birds so as to leave no desolate 
mourner. I startled them from the nest, and as they flew off, fired right 
and left, killed the drake, but alas missed the duck. The deed was done, 
and there was nothing left but to take the egg which I did with a sad- 
dened heart and walked on to my camp three miles distant. All that day 
the memory of the poor little solitary duck haunted me. I could not get 
it out of my mind, and the next morning I determined to return to the 
spot, though it took me six miles out of my way, and put an end to the 
misery of the unhappy survivor by shooting her. On reaching the place, 
there I found her, seated on her empty nest, the scene of the previous 
day’s calamity, seated indeed, but not alone, she was accompanied, and no 
doubt successfully cheered by another drake that had already aspired to 
the place in her affections vacated by her unfortunate partner only the 
day before. In this case the nest contained only a single egg which was 
quite fresh, the usual number laid for hatching being from seven to ten. 
The behaviour is, lowever, very different when the little family 
arrangements are further developed. I once found the nest of a golden- 
crested wren, with eight eggsin it. The eggs were new to me at the time, 
and as I was anxious to find out accurately to what bird they belonged, I 
set a snare by the nest, and in a few minutes caught and killed the hen 
bird, and tnen taking the nest I sat down to pack it, and the eggs and the 
little bird to convey them safely away. Whaile I was engaged on this, 
the cock bird appeared and soon perceived the disaster that had happened 
to his home, his plaintive chirping was most piteous to hear, and I hur- 
riedly moved away, but there was no escaping, the poor little 
thing followed me incessantly, keeping pace with me and flitting 
from tree to tree, till passing out of the pine wood I got into 
open treeless ground, and there, unable to trust his frail little wings to 
the long flight, and fearing to alight on the open common, he fell back, 
and to my great relief his cries of woe were soon lost to hearing. The 
eggs were so hard set in this case that I was unable to preserve even one 
