WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. Ts 
The female is much like the male in plumage, but 
duller. 7 
The young are brown where the old birds display me- 
tallic hues, and have the head and neck marked with 
brown much after the fashion of the female Cotton-teal, 
not spotted with black or white. 
The eyes, bill, and feet, are all dark, as is the comb 
when present. 
The male is very much larger than the female, mea- 
suring about two feet and-a-half, with a wing of fifteen 
inches, shank two and three-quarters, and bill about the 
same ; it is much the largest of Indian Ducks proper. 
The female is not much over two feet long, with a wing 
about a foot, shank and bill about two inches. 
The Comb-duck has a wide range in warm countries 
and is resident ; it is found in India, Ceylon, and Burma, 
and also in Africa south of the Sahara and in Mada- 
gascar. It is common where thereis plenty of wood and 
water, and rare or wanting in desert tracts. Nor is it 
common, if it occurs, in the districts south of Mysore, 
Bombay, the Deccan, Sind, the Western Punjab, and 
Tenasserim. 
This Duck is usually found in small flocks in the cold 
weather, and at other times in pairs. It is a tree-duck, 
perching and breeding in trees ; the nest being made in 
a hole or a fork, of sticks, leaves, feathers, &c. ; the eggs, 
laid in July, August, or September, are seven to twelve 
in number, ivory-white and very glossy. Initsattitudes 
on land and water this Duck resembles a Goose, but 
does not carry the neck so stiffly ; and it flies faster and 
is a better diver. It is often called the Black-backed 
Goose, but is not a Goose either in structure, plumage, 
or habits, keeping much more to the water, and being a 
very silent bird. It is fairly good eating. The bill is 
powerful enough to draw blood when the bird is handled, 
and the slight wound so produced is apt to fester accord- 
