INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 561 



The only note in Oates' edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs " is of a 

 nest found at Saugor, C. P., and taken from a large hollow in an old tree. 

 The hollow was well lined with, twigs, grass, and a few feathers. The 

 eggs, seven in number, varied between 2*12" and 2*25" in length and be- 

 tween 1*65" and 1*75" in breadth. They breed in most places in July and 

 August; in Nadia I took the nest at the end of June — I forget the date — 

 and in Rungpur they breed principally in August, a few in September. 



I have never taken more than ten eggs from any nest, and think 6 to 

 8 is the number most often laid, and I have taken four quite hard set. 



I have noticed that there is a very general tendency to over-estimate 

 the number of eggs laid by all game birds whether land or water : why 

 this should be so I cannot tell, but that it is so cannot be doubted. 

 Thus the majority of quails lay four eggs, few more than six ; jungle 

 fowl lay five or six, sometimes eight or more, but this is the exception ; 

 bush and bamboo partridges almost invariably four or five. Of nearly 

 all these birds, writers, — generally anonymous, at other times good 

 sportsmen but bad observers — have noted their laying double the 

 number, and put that down as the normal number in a clutch. 



After this digression to return to the Whistling Teals' eggs. They 

 vary in no way from those of the smaller bird, though Oates says that 

 they are perhaps of superior smoothness. This has not struck me, and 

 1 certainly could not discriminate between a small egg of D.fulva and 

 a large one of D. javanica. When first laid they are a pure pearly 

 white, often showing a slight gloss ; this gloss goes off very quickly, and 

 soon the eggs take a very faint greyish or yellowish tint, the shade 

 depending, I think, on the water the parent bird frequents and the 

 material of which the nest is made. I have a clutch of eggs taken 

 from a nest made principally of, and lined entirely with, rank weeds, 

 and their eggs are faint, but distinct, yellowish underneath and pale 

 greyish above. 



The normal shape of the egg is a very broad regular oval, but little 

 smaller at one end than the other. Abnormal eggs are generally longer 

 in shape, but I have seen none at all pointed. They are fine and smooth 

 in texture, but inclined to be chalky and not very close grained. 



Twenty-five of my eggs average 2"09" X l'6d". The smallest I 

 have ever taken was 1'84" X 1*56" and the largest 2-40" X 2*01" ; but 

 neither of these are now in my collection. 



