DENDROCVGNA. 177 



Sub-Family, TADORNIN^ (Anatin^, Sw.) 



Plumage rufous ; bill flattened towards the tip, with horny termination ; 

 hind toe long and slighty lobed. 



Dendrocygna, ^z^*.— Whistling Ducks. 



Bill rather large, of uniform width ; secondaries long, also the tarsi ; 2nd, 

 3rd and 4th primaries sub-equal and longest. 



218. Dendrocygna JavSinica. (Uors/.), Hume and Bav., Sir. F. 

 vi. p. 4S6 ; Legge, B. Ceylon, p. 1069 ; Hume and Marsh., Game Birds iii. 

 p. 109, pi.; Oates, B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 273 ; Murray, Vert. Zool., Sind, 

 p. 287; id., Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. 678, No. 1381. Anas javanica, Horsf., 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 199. Dendrocygna aswuree, Jerd., B. Ltd. iii. 

 p. 789. Dendrocygna arcuata (C?/z'.), apud Hume, Nests and Eggs Ind B. 

 p. 639; Oates, Str. F. v. p. 169.— The Lesser Whistling Teal. 



Top of head and occiput dull wood brown, and a narrow streak of the same 

 continued down the middle of the back of the neck from behind the nape; 

 sides of the face and neck fulvous brown ; chin and throat albescent ; lower 

 neck and breast yellowish chestnut, gradually passing into the light chestnut 

 of the under surface of the body ; vent and under tail coverts albescent ; back 

 and scapulars dusky brown, the feathers edged with dingy fulvous chestnut, 

 forming lunules ; upper tail coverts chestnut ; tail brown, tipped slightly paler; 

 primaries and secondaries black; greater coverts and tertiaries dusky brown ; 

 lesser and median coverts deep maroon ; axillaries black ; bill dusky brown, 

 darker at the tip ; irides deep brown ; eyelids bright yellow to pale golden ; 

 legs plumbeous. 



Length. — 17-5 to 18 inches; wing 8 to 8-5 ; tail 2 to 2-12 ; bill at front 1*5 ; 

 tarsus 1*75. 



^a^.— Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces and the Indian Peninsula generally, 

 but not in the more arid tracts, where water is not abundant, as in the interior 

 of Rajputana. According to Hume, there is scarcely any suitable locality 

 within the limits of the Indian empire, including Burmah, Ceylon, the Anda- 

 mans and Nicobars, in which this species does not occur either as^a perma- 

 nent resident or a seasonal visitant. It is essentially a tree duck, and in the 

 breeding season especially affects the larger pieces of water, in the vicinity of 

 trees. At other times it is found in nearly every suitable piece of water. It 

 nidificates on trees, making a nest of twigs, &c., or occupying old nests of 

 Herons and Ibises. In Sind it has been found breeding in great numbers on 

 the Eastern Narra, and I have taken a nest of 11 eggs at the One Tree Tank, 

 six miles from Kurrachee. Mr. Doig, who took its eggs in the Narra, found lO 



23 B 



