1'26 INDIAN UUCKS 



Now and then the nest is found on trees close by villages and 

 near some tank or piece of water.. When on this kind of tree the 

 nests may be placed either on one of the bigger forks or in a large 

 hollow, and when in the former place are quite well-built nests of 

 twigs lined with grass and a few feathers. If, on the contrary, they 

 are in the hollows, the nest is scanty, and sometimes merely consists 

 of the fragments naturally contained in the hole. 



In Rungpur I found nearly all my nests on trees, though very 

 often they were not built by the birds themselves, but they used 

 old crows' nests sometimes, old kites' nests frequently. I should 

 mention that the crows' nests the birds used were always those of 

 C. fiplcndcus, and it seems to me very remarkable that this duck 

 should find room to lay and hatch some six to a dozen eggs in a nest 

 as small as that usually built by C. macrorJn/)ichiis, as this crow- 

 generally makes such a compact, neat nest, with very little waste 

 room about it. I should imagine the jungle-crow in Hume's 

 anecdote, given below, must have been an extravagant, wasteful 

 bird, or else have taken house-rent from the teal and charged per 

 square yard of room. 



Most nests are not placed at any great height from the gi'ound, 

 seldom over twenty feet or so, but I have taken one or two from far 

 greater heights. 



As regards the number of eggs laid, there is a good deal of 

 difference in the maximum normal number as estimated by various 

 observers. 



Jerdon, Butler, Doig, Davidson, Cripps, and I, myself, consider 

 about eight to ten to be the normal number laid, though in t'achar 

 the former number is the largest I remember taking. Oates gives 

 SIX or seven, whilst Anderson says that ordinarily this bird lays a 

 dozen. 



In Dibrugarh, where I found very many nests, indeed sometimes 

 seven or eight in a morning, I found six to eight to be the normal 

 number, though I once found eleven. On the other hand, I several 

 times saw hard-set clutches numbering only four or five. 



Probably eight to ten is the number most often laid, and whilst 

 in some districts, probably to the east, they may average fewer, yet, 

 on the other hand, in some more to the west, the average clutch 

 may be somewhat larger. 



