DENDROCYCNA TAVANICA 125 



They also made use of the high ground surrounding the deeper 

 pieces of water, which formed small banks in the cold weather, luit 

 in the rains formed tiny circular islands. The nests here were 

 massive structures of grass and water-weeds, and were always very 

 well concealed, the covering grass in every case forming a dome 

 completely covering them and hiding them from sight, even when 

 one stood actually over them. 



Except in this district, I have never seen a nest actually on the 

 ground, but have taken one or two from situations very close to it. 

 In Cachar, at the foot of the hills, there is much broken ground, often 

 intersected by nullahs which widen out here and there into swamps 

 and bheels. Here the Whistling-Teal is in its element, and has an 

 enormous variety of sites to choose from. The one I found most 

 often selected was some clump of trees, generally babool or a stunted 

 species of large-leaved, densely-foliaged tree which often grows 

 actually in the water. When the rains are on, these small clumps 

 form oases in the centre of a watery desert, and when the floods are 

 at their height show merely a few feet of their crests above water, 

 on one of which these ducks build their nests, rough-and-ready con- 

 structions of weeds, sun-grass, and rushes, rarely lined with a few 

 feathers. Sometimes a good many twigs are used, more especially 

 when the nests are placed in babool trees, where, owing to the support 

 being less compact, the nest itself is bound to be stronger and better 

 put together. The situation next most often chosen as a site for the 

 nest is up one of the arms of these same bheels or swamps, which 

 seldom, if ever, have deep water in them, but at the same time, from 

 collecting moisture drained off surrounding hills, are always wet and 

 moist. In these places the canes, reeds, and other vegetation grow 

 to a great height, often twelve feet or more, and are so rank and 

 tangled that their tops will bear no inconsiderable weight. When 

 building the nest in one of these tangles, the birds place it some two 

 or three feet from the top, the density of which protects it greatly 

 from rain, &c. The nest itself is one of the roughest description ; a 

 mere thick, coarse pad of grass, reeds, and perhaps, a few creepers, 

 measuring some eighteen to twenty-four inches in diameter, and 

 with no more depression in the centre than is caused by the birds 

 constantly sitting in it. 



