20n INDIAN DUCKS. 



Mr. B. Alexander found it brood in o- plontifully in the Capo Vord 

 Islands, and it appears to breed on the <2;reater portions of its habitat round 

 the Mediterranean. Although breeding in latitudes so far south, it is un- 

 usually late in breeding, May and June being the months in ^vhich the 

 eggs are laid. It is said to make a rough nest, much like that of the 

 C*onunon Teal, and to place it amongst rushes on land surrounding swamps 

 and ^•arious kinds of water, and also on the sea-shore, this last more 

 especially in Spain. Of this latter country Col. Irl)y thus records their 

 nestino; in Andalusia : — "The Marbled Duck broods durino; the last -week 

 in May, nesting in patches of rushes. The nest is like that of a Teal, 

 containing a good deal of the down from the Ijreast of the female; and 11 

 eggs appear to be the usual complement. The latter much resemble those 

 of the Common Teal, being of a yellowish-white colour. Favier states that 

 (near Tangiers) they also nest in rushes during May and June, and that 

 incubation lasts from 25 to 27 days." 



The eggs which Col. Butler received from the Mekran Coast are, in all 

 j)robability, rightly identified by him as l)eing those of the Marbled Teal. 

 He says : — " I received some small duck's eggs from the Mekran Coast, 

 which are in my o])inion those of the Marbled Uuck. The nest was on the 

 ground under a solitary babool bush, growing on an extensive tract of salt 

 marsh, some seven or eight miles north of Ormarra, called Moorputty, and 

 consisted, according to the account of the native who found it, of a collection 

 of fine twigs formed into a solid pad with a few ])ieces of down as a lining, 

 and measuring; eiidit or nine inches in diameter. 



" The eggs, eight in number, and of a tlelicate cream-colour, were taken 

 on the 19th June, 1<!J78. I have carefully compared them with eggs of 

 the Marbled Duck, and find that they agree exactly, both in size, colour, and 

 texture. They are certainly not Garganey's eggs, being too large ; I know 

 of no other duck inhabiting that district they could possibly belong to 

 except the present species. 



"They vary in size from I'b to I*'.) inches in length, and from 1'35 to 

 1-43 in breadth." 



Barnes, in his article on " Nesting in Western India," noted that ho, too, 

 had received some eggs from the Frere Museum which had come from the 

 Mekran l*oast about the same time as those received by Clolonel Butler. 

 He describes them as being of a creamy white, much soiled and dulled by 

 lapse of time, but he does not give their dimensions. 



