INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 19 
I have two clutches of eggs of this duck in my collection, both of 
which I owe to the generosity of Herr Kuschel of Breslau. The first 
clutch, which are marked “ Sarepta Sud Russland, 4th May, 1889,” are 
the greenest ducks’ eggs I have ever seen, quite a vivid stone-green, 
though the three vary a little, zmier se, in brightness of tint and 
intensity of colour. The surface is very fine and close with an extremely 
‘smooth surface having a strong gloss. The shape of two of these eggs 
are very regular broad ovals, of the third a narrower oval with one end 
decidedly compressed and smaller than the other but not at all 
pointed. 
These three eggs measure 2°21"1°6"; 2:20"%1°72" and 2°12"x 
1-62", , 
The other three eggs are similar but less intensely green. 
Morris says :—‘ The Golden-eye builds in the vicinity of lakes and 
rivers, giving a preference to the’ latter, particularly such as flow over 
falls and rapids. The Laplanders place boxes with holes in them in the 
irees in these localities, for the birds to build in, and thus procure the 
eggs, for the cotes are rare to be resorted to for the purpose of laying 
in, 
“The nest is made of rushes and other herbage, lined with down. 
Mr. Hewitson found one in a hole in a tree, ten or twelve feet from 
the ground. 
** The eggs are of a greenish hue and from ten to fourteen in num-~ 
ber.” 
The egg depicted by Morris, however, is of a greenish stone-colour, 
the green tint by no means very prominent. It is also more pointed 
at the smaller end than in any egg I have ever seen. 
Subfamily HRismATURINE, 
The one great distinctive feature of this subfamily is the remark- 
able tail, of which the 18 feathers are stiff and hard, very much as are 
the feathers of a Woodpecker’s tail. 
The subfamily contains four genera, Thalassiornis confined to Soath 
Africa, Nomonyx to Tropical America, Biziwra which is only found in 
Australia, and finally Hrismatwra which is almost cosmopolitan. 
The first three genera consist of but one species each, but Lrismatura, 
the only genus in which we are interested, has no less than seven, 
one of which, E. leucocephala, extends into India, 
