570 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



of C. splendens, and it seems to me very remarkable that this duck 

 should find room to lay and hatch some six to a dozen eggs in a nest 

 as small as that usually built by C. macrorliynchns, as this crow general- 

 ly makes such a compact neat nest with very little waste room about 

 it. I should imagine the jungle crow in Hume's anecdote given above 

 must have been an extravagant, wasteful bird, or else have taken house- 

 rent from the teal and charged per square yard of room. 



Most nests are not placed at any great height from the ground, 

 seldom over twenty feet or so, but I have taken one or two from far- 

 greater heights. 



As regards the number of eggs laid, there is a good deal of difference 

 in the maximum normal number as estimated by various observers. 



Jerdon, Butler, Doig, Davidson, Cripps and I myself consider about 

 8 to 10 to be the normal number laid, though in Cachar the former 

 number is the largest I remember taking. Oates gives six or seven, 

 whilst Anderson says that ordinarily this bird lays a dozen. 



Probably 8 to 10 is the number most often laid, and whilst in some, 

 districts, probably to the East, they may average fewer, yet, on the 

 other hand, in some, more to the West, the average clutch may be some- 

 what larger. 



The eggs are like those already described as belonging to D. fulva, 

 that is to say, they are very spherical ovals, but little compressed at the 

 smaller end, and in texture are very smooth and fine, but neither very 

 close-grained or glossy, and somewhat chalky on the surface. They 

 are nearly pure white, sometimes inclined to ivory-white, when first 

 laid, but stain quickly and soon lose the faint gloss they sometimes 

 show at first. 



Hume in a footnote to " Game Birds" says that the lining membrane 

 of this teal's egg is a delicate salmon-pink, and gives a faint rosy tinge 

 to perfectly fresh unblown eggs. I have never, I am sorry to say, 

 examined this membrane when fresh, and when dry it is of a dead grey- 

 white. I should have said that the tint of eggs in the condition he 

 describes was more of a creamy-yellow than rosy, but the shells are 

 thick and have very little transparency, and as a rule the yolk gives 

 no tint at all to the shell. 



All my eggs come within the average given by Oates in Hume's 

 " Nests, and Eggs," viz., length from 1*72" to 2'0"and breadth from 1'4" 



