560 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XL 



and doubtless also vary their usual diet with a duckling every now and 

 then. 



In Nadia I took one nest of this species only, and I do not remember 

 seeing any more of these birds in that district. Krishnaghar, the head- 

 quarters town of Nadia, evidently once boasted a sporting community, 

 as there is a race-course, and a good one too, about a mile-and-a-half 

 from the station. Dotted here and there about the centre and on the 

 outskirts of this race-course there are a number of small tanks, all 

 densely covered with weeds and surrounded by a thick fringe of bushes 

 and trees which afforded good cover to hare, jackals, and now and then 

 a leopard. Overhanging one of these tanks, and encroaching into the 

 water itself, was a fine banyan tree, and over the water and resting on a 

 number of branches which crossed and recrossed one another a pair of 

 Whistling Teals had made their nest. It was quite an ideal place for 

 a nest ; the branches projected well over the deep tank and, though 

 supported by the numerous roots which had grown down from them, 

 were yet not strong enough to bear the weight of a man. In addition 

 to this the brambles were so fearfully dense all round the tree that it 

 was an awful business to get to it. Eventually after two visits had been 

 made, we cut a narrow pathway through the jungle and sent an adven- 

 turous, small boy up into the tree, who succeeded in clambering out to 

 the nest and letting the eggs down in his puggree. 



In Etungpur I found them selecting big trees and generally making 

 their nests high up in them, some thirty feet or so from the ground. 

 One nest I took from a large hollow in a dead tree. All the nests I 

 saw in this district were made in trees growing beside the ditches of 

 which I have already spoken when describing the Cotton Teals' nest. 



I have never seen their nests on the ground, but any one hunting for 

 their nests should not overlook the fact that they may be found to make 

 their nests thus. 



Barnes, vide his article on " Nesting in Western India/' found this bird 

 breeding at Hyderabad in Sind, and saw one nest which was placed in a 

 babool tree in the very centre of a large and deep jhil. Barnes doubted 

 the authenticity of the eggs in his collection on account of their small 

 size, and says that they measured l"9"x 1"6". This is smaller than usual 

 but not remarkably so, and the difference in the size of their eggs is not 

 half so great as is that between the two species of birds themselves. 



