FOR NORTHERN INDIA 150 



The lesser whistling-teal (Dendrocygna 

 javanica) usually builds its nest in a hollow 

 in a tree. Sometimes it makes use of the 

 deserted nursery of another species, and there 

 are many cases on record of the nest being on 

 the ground, a bund, or a piece of high ground 

 in a jhil. Eight or ten eggs are laid. 



The little grebe or dabchick (Podiceps 

 albipennis) is another species that lays in 

 July or August. This bird, which looks like 

 a miniature greyish-brown duck without a 

 tail, must be familiar to Anglo-Indians, since 

 at least one pair are to be seen on almost 

 every pond or tank in Northern India. Al- 

 though permanent residents in this country, 

 little grebes leave, in the " rains," those tanks 

 that do not afford plenty of cover, and betake 

 themselves to a jhil where vegetation is 

 luxuriant. The nest, like that of other species 

 that build floating cradles, is a tangle of 

 weeds and rushes. When the incubating 

 bird leaves the nest she invariably covers the 

 white eggs with wet weeds, and, as Hume 

 remarks, it is almost impossible to catch the 

 old bird on the nest or to take her so much 

 by surprise as not to allow her time to cover 

 up the eggs. As a matter of fact, these birds 



