DEN'DEOCYGNA. 285 



returned next day there was a pair of birds on the uest again, so 

 that the female had apparently provided herself with a fresh mate 

 in that short interval. In another case the nest was swarming 

 with ants and maggots." 



The late Mr. A. Anderson remarks : " Jerdon could never 

 have found a full clutch of the eggs of the Whistling Teal, or he 

 would not have limited the number to l six or eight '" (' Birds of 

 India,' vol. iii. p. 790). Ordinarily this Duck lays fully a dozen 

 eggs ; but I am indebted to my friend Mr. Fynes-Cliuton for two 

 clutches of twelve and fourteen respectively, which he took from 

 the same nest ; whether these were laid by one or two birds must 

 of course remain an open question. 



" On the 29th June, 1872, Mr. Clinton flushed a bird from the 

 top of a low date-palm (Phoenix daciylifera} and found the first- 

 mentioned lot (twelve) ; on the 13th July he happened to visit the 

 same locality, and to his surprise found the second clutch in exactly 

 the same situation ; the Duck was on her eggs. Now the dates 

 are so coincident that, supposing these twenty-six eggs to be the 

 produce of two birds, the second one must have laid her first egg 

 the very day after the removal of the first batch. 



44 As to situation, the choice may be mentioned in the following 

 order: (1st) depression at the fork of the lower branches of 

 large-limbed trees ; (2nd) old nests, particularly those belonging 

 to Crows, Herons, c. ; and (3rd) thorny scrub* or grass on the 

 edge of swamps. 



44 The eggs measure T9 by To inch, and when fresh are of a 

 milky-white colour ; the inside membrane is a delicate salmon-pink 

 tint." 



In Ceylon this Teal breeds from June until August. 



Major Bingham found a nest of this Teal near Delhi in a hollow 

 of a decayed branch of a tree on the 9th August. Colonel Butler 

 tells us that he found a nest with ten slightly incubated eggs on 

 the 24th August at Deesa. The nest was placed in a tussock of 

 ^TLI--. Mr. Doig took ten fresh eggs from a nest in the Eastern 

 Xarra, Sind, on the 22nd June. This and other nests subsequently 

 taken were placed on creeper-covered tamarisk bushes at heights 

 from 3 to 8 feet above the water. Mr. Brooks took a nest of this 

 species out of a broken tree-stump about 4 feet high. Mr. J. 

 Davidson informs us that in the Paiich Mehals he found several 

 nests in tufts of grass in September and October. At Faridpur, 

 Dacca, and Sylhet this Teal, according to Mr. Cripps, breeds 

 in July and August, the nest being placed both in trees and on 

 the ground. In Pegu Mr. Oates took nests from the 6th July 

 to the 29th August. The nests were built on thick matted cane- 

 breaks in paddy-fields. Major AVardlaw Earn say records August 

 and September as the months in which he found nests in Burma. 



The eggs of this species are usually very broad ovals, often 

 slightly compressed towards one end. In texture they differ much 

 from those of the Comb Duck and Teal Groose already described. 

 They lack the exquisite smoothness and satiny feel of these latter, 



