52 INDIAX PUCKS. 



the rushes or lotus weeds, of weeds, <;riiss, &c., all together, tilled up 

 several inclies above the water-level. 



" The many boatmen of this lake stated that this ^oslet breeds there 

 every year, and at the Salbuhat Lake also the boatmen affirmed the same." 



I have found nests quite low down, in trees only just above water- 

 level in tact, but have never taken them from a hole at any hei<^ht from 

 the ground, and cannot now recall to mind any which were over 15 or IG 

 feet from it. They do, however, sometimes select very lofty situations, 

 for Gates took one nest containing 10 eggs from a mango tree about 

 30 feet above the ground. They ar(> saiil also to breed sometimes in old 

 ruins, broken-down walls, &.c. Cri))]is savs : ** Thev even lav their e<iss 

 in the factory chimney holes. ^^ 1'liey do not always midvc use of places 

 quite close to water, as a pair of these birds laid their eggs in a gigantic 

 tree standing in the Magistrate's compouml in liung[)ore. At the back 

 of the house there was a good-sized tank, frequented by a pair of these 

 birds, and as they were so constantly ])res('nt, T hunted all round the tank, 

 in every tree, for the nest. However, it was not to be found, though holes 

 and hollows which looked suitable for ne-ting-purposes were connnon 

 enough. Eventually I found the nest by accident in a tree in front of the 

 house and full two hundred vards from the tank. This was one of the nests 

 alread}' mentioned, which contained 22 eggs. I watched this nest very 

 carefully, and on the sixteenth day after it was found the chicks were 

 hatched, and I then waited anxiously to see how they would get to the 

 water. They remained in the nest that dav. but the followini; mornino-, 

 though I was out very soon after daybreak, they were all in the tank, 

 15 out of the 22, 7 eggs being addled, which I took. It was a great 

 disappointment not seeing the goslings taken from the nest to the water, 

 and I have never vet seen it done. A Aery intelligent native once told me 

 that early one morning, before it was lights he was fishing in a tank, or 

 rather lookinii- to his nets which had been luit down overuioht. when he 

 saw something flutter heavily into the water from a tree in front of him and 

 some twenty paces distant. The bird returned to the tree, and again with 

 much V)eating of the wings fluttered down to the sm-face of the tank, 

 and this performance was repeated again and again at intervals of souie 

 minutes. At first he could only make out that the cause of the commotion 

 was a bird of some kind, but after a few minutes he, remaining crouched 

 among the reeds and bushes, saw distinctly that it was :i Cotton-Teal, and 

 that each time it Hopped into the water and rose again it left a gosHng 

 ])ehind it. These, he said, he could see were carried somehow in the feet, 



