204 INDIAN DUCKS 



From these places must now be struck off the Andamans, 

 Nicobais, and Malabar, the bird having been found frequently in 

 the latter place since ' Game-birds ' was written. 



In Legge's 'Birds of Ceylon' it is said not to occur in the 

 i'hilippines, but lately I have heard that it has been met with 

 there also. 



Nidification. — Teal have on so many occasions been found at 

 different times between June and August in India, that ornitho- 

 logists have been always kept in a state of semi-expectation that 

 their nests would be found somewhere within our Indian limits, 

 either in Kashmir or some of the Himalayan lakes. Still time has 

 gone on and no such nest has yet been taken, and, personally, I 

 think it is unlikely one ever will be. Amongst the many thousands of 

 Teal shot annually, it would be strange if some few, whilst escaping 

 death and even severe wounds, did not receive internal injuries, 

 invisible themselves after a brief period, yet quite sufficient to 

 incapacitate the birds from migration. This would be quite enough 

 to account for the few birds met with at abnormal times ; and 

 though these might appear strong and robust on the wing, yet it 

 does not follow that they were equally so a week or ten days before 

 they were noticed. 



They breed practically over the whole of their northern habitat 

 as far south as the 40th degree, but in the southern portion of 

 this range they only breed here and there in very small numbers. 

 They breed freely in northern England and in Scotland, though 

 seldom in the southern counties ; yet they have been recorded at 

 this season, and their eggs have been taken in Spain, Greece, North 

 Italy, and South Bussia. 



They breed very rarely in Greenland, plentifully in Iceland, but 

 not much in the extreme north of Europe, and probably not at all 

 in the extreme north of Asia. Throughout Southern Siberia, 

 Manchuria, and the Amur a great number breed, and a few also in 

 the north of Japan. 



They generally make their nests at the edges of swamps and 

 other pieces of water, often where there is actually a little water 

 standing, and even where they make them at a distance from any 

 water the site chosen is nearly always a wet and boggy one. Thus, 



