INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 569 



the foot of the hills there is much broken ground often intersected by- 

 nullahs which widen out here and there into swamps and bheels. Here 

 the Whistling Teal is in its element and has an enormous variety of 

 sites to choose from. The one I have found most often selected is 

 some clump of trees, generally babool or a stunted species of large- 

 leaved, densely-i'oliaged tree which grows often actually in the water. 

 When the rains are on, these small clumps form oases in the centre of 

 a watery desert and, when the floods are at their height, shew merely a 

 few feet of their crests above water, on one of which the ducks build 

 their nest ; a rough and ready construction of weeds, sun-grass and 

 rushes, rarely lined with a few feathers. Sometimes a good many 

 twigs are used, more especially when the nests are placed in babool 

 trees, where, owing to the support being less compact, the nest itself is 

 bound to be stronger and better put together. The situation next 

 most often chosen as a site for the nest is up one of the arms of these 

 bheels, which seldom, if ever, have deep water in them, but at the 

 same time, from collecting moisture drained off the surrounding hills, 

 are always wet and moist. In these places the canes, reeds and other 

 vegetation grow to a great height, often 12 feet or more, and are so 

 rank and tangled that their tops will bear no inconsiderable weight. 

 When building the nest in one of these tangles the birds place it some 

 two or three feet from the top, the density of which protects it greatly 

 from rain, etc. The nest itself is of the roughest description, a mere 

 thick, coarse pad of grass, reeds and perhaps a few creepers, measuring 

 some 18" to 24" in diameter, and with no more depression in the centre 

 than is caused by the birds constantly sitting in them. 



Now and then the nest is found on trees close by villages and near 

 some tank or piece of water. When on this kind of tree the nest may be 

 placed either on one of the bigger forks or in a large hollow ; and when 

 in the former place, are quite Avell-built nests of twigs lined with grass 

 and a few feathers. If, on the contrary, they are in the hollows, the nest 

 is scanty and sometimes merely consists of the fragments naturallv 

 contained in the hole. 



In Rungpur, I found nearly all my nests ou trees, though very often 

 they were not built by the birds themselves, but they used old 

 crow's nests sometimes, old kite's nests frequently. I should 

 mention that the crow's nests the birds used were always those 



