NETTAPUS COROMAXDELIANUS. 51 



other obstructions which come in their way as they fly down the wayside 

 drains and ditches with an activity quite wonderful. In addition to their 

 s])eed of flight they ai*e very densely plumaged and tough, and carry off a 

 wonderful lot o£ shot for so small a bird. In the Sunderbuns they are 

 found alike in the very biggest and broadest stretches of water as in the 

 smallest ; only in the former they keep much to weedy places with thick 

 cover adjacent. In Rungpore, Furreedpore, Barisal, and adjoining- 

 districts th.ey keep more to small tanks, ditches, and enclosed bhils than to 

 the larger, more open pieces of water ; and this is said to be their practice 

 in most other parts of their habitat. I^egge says that they frequent 

 sometimes the flooded lands close to the sea-shore. 



I have generally observed them in rather small flocks, seldom more 

 than about twenty, and more often under than over a dozen — that is to 

 say, in family-parties only ; other observers, however, speak of finding 

 them in larger flocks, so I suppose that often the families collect together, 

 and on one occasion in Dibrugarh I saw a flock of fully 100 birds. 



The only district in which I have personally found and taken their 

 nests in any number is Rungpore. I was there once for three or four 

 months in the rains, and I am sure that at that time a short walk of two 

 or three miles in any direction, along any road, would have been 

 productive of three or four nests of Cotton-Teal, as well perhaps of one or 

 two of Whistling-Teal. The District and Station roads are well off for 

 fine large trees, forming complete avenues on many of them, and most of 

 them have large drains on either side, or else a succession of borrow-pits 

 take their place. These, long disused, have naturally become w^ell covered 

 with weeds and grasses, and form grand hunting-grounds for this little 

 duck, whilst the numerous hollows in the old trees which overhang them 

 afford sites for building in. I think they generally select hollows of some 

 size in the trunk of the tree itself, and at about 6 to 12 feet from the 

 oround, and this hollow thev line well and abundantly with twio-s, prass, 

 and feathers. I have twice known as many as 22 eggs laid, once 18, and 

 once 16, but, normally, I should say they lay any number from 8 to 14, 

 10 being perhaps the number more often laid than any other. I have 

 never known them make any other sort of nest than this already described, 

 but others have recorded quite different stories regarding their nidification. 

 Blewitt, writing from Jhansi, says : " It breeds in July and August. 

 Just above the village of Borogaon is a large lake, from which several 

 coos of this ooslet wore brought. The eg(>s were collected in two months 

 on different occasions. It makes a setni-floating nest on the water among 



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