CASARCA. 679 



tient 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 1 1 eggs at the One Tree Tank, 

 six miles from Kurrachee, Mr. Doig, who took its eggs in the Narra, found 10 

 as the greatest number from any one nest. * The nests/' he says, " were 

 composed of green twigs, and in some instances of leaves of the large bulrush 

 trodden down to make a platform." Mr. Hume (Game Birds) records 

 instances of the curious fact of this species carrying its young in its feet from 

 the nest to the water, Mr, Kemp in the Futtehpore District adds his testimony 

 to the fact, having obtained an egg from off a narrow ridge where the bird was 

 seen to carry it just before he shot it, Mr. Hume says "He heard of their 

 being seen flying down to the water with ducklings on their backs, and that 

 twice he saw them carrying these in their claws. On one of these occasions, 

 between 8 and 9 A. M., he saw a duck carry down her whole brood of seven, 

 t>ne at a time, from a hole in a huge mango tree to the water, she passing each 

 time within three yards of his face. 



1382. Dendrocygna fulva (Gmel\ Sclater and Safa, P. Z. S. 

 1876, p. 372; Hume and Marsh. , Game Birds Hi, p. 119, pK ; Oates, B Br. 

 JBurm. ii. p. 274. Anas fulva, Gmel., Syst. Nat. i. p. 530. Dendrocygna 

 major, Jerd., Madras Journal \ 1840, p. 218 ; ;</., ///. Ind. Orn. pi. xxiii.; 

 ffume, Str.F. iii. p. 193. The LARGER WHISTLING TEAL. 



Top of head and sides of the face rufescent brown, slightly paler on the 

 cheeks ; chin and throat albescent, a broad ring or patch of white in the 

 middle of the neck-, a broad black line down the back of the neck from below 

 the nape ; back, scapulars, primaries, secondaries, tertials and greater wing 

 coverts dark brown, the feathers of the back with rufescent or chestnut edging, 

 forming lunules ; lesser wing coverts dark maroon ; breast yellowish chestnut, 

 gradually passing into the light chestnut of the under parts of the body ; vent, 

 under and upper tail coverts white or fulvous white ; tail dark brown ; bill 

 plumbeous ; irides brown ; legs and feet plumbeous. 



Length. 20-5 to 21 inches ; wing 9-25 ; tail 2*5 to 2*8 ; bill from gape 2 to 

 2-4; tarsus 2-25. 



Hab Sind, Punjab, N.-W. and Central Provinces, Oudh, Bengal, Rajpu- 

 tana, Kutch, Guzerat, Concan and Deccan, also S. India and Ceylon in 

 suitable localities ; also Burmah. 



Gen. Casarca. Bp 



Bill moderate ; culmen with a knob at the base ; nail at tip large ; hind toe 

 lobed ; wing spurred ; plumage from buffy orang to bright orange. 



