i 4 9 A BIRD CALENDAR 



this performance was repeated again and again 

 at intervals of some minutes. At first the 

 native could only make out that the cause of 

 the commotion was a bird of some kind, but 

 after a few minutes, he, remaining crouched 

 among the reeds and bushes, saw distinctly 

 that it was a cotton-teal, and that each time 

 it flopped into the water and rose again it 

 left a gosling behind it. The young ones 

 were carried somehow in the feet, but the 

 parent bird seemed to find the carriage of 

 its offspring no easy matter ; it flew with 

 difficulty, and fell into the water with con- 

 siderable force. 



August is the month in which some fortunate 

 observer will one year be able to confirm or 

 refute this story. 



The comb-duck or nukta (Sarcidiornis mela- 

 notus), which looks more like a freak of some 

 domesticated breed than one of nature's own 

 creatures, makes, in July or August, a nest 

 of grass and sticks in a hole in a tree or in the 

 fork of a stout branch. Sometimes disused 

 nests of other species are utilised. About a 

 dozen eggs is the usual number of the clutch, 

 but Anderson once found a nest containing 

 no fewer than forty eggs. 



