NYROCA AFRICAXA. 231 



extremely likely one : for I have myself known domestic ducks to lose 

 their limbs from the attacks of a huge pike — indeed, when the birds were 

 young and weak, they often lost, not their feet only, but their lives also. 

 Ducklings constantly disappear in this manner. As there are many other 

 fish quite as voracious as the pike in other climates, this would account 

 very reasonably for so many birds losing one or more limbs. 



This is one of the very few micrratorv ducks which breed resnilarly 

 within our limits. As to its breeding in the plains, Hume writes : — " The 

 White-eye breeds possibly in some localities in the plains of India^ and in 

 Sind, where it swarms during the cold weather, and where I was informed 

 that in some broads it remained during the whole year. I have never, 

 however, succeeded in finding a nest or obtaining any reliable information 

 as to one being found in the plains." This was written more than eighteen 

 years ago, and the reliable information is still wanting ; so that it is only 

 fair to presume that the duck does not breed in the plains. 



In Kashmir it breeds regularly and in very great numbers — so large, 

 indeed, that the collecting of the eggs of this duck and of the Mallard, 

 and bringing them into Sirinagar by boats for sale, formed a regular and 

 profitable profession with a number of the people living in the vicinity 

 of their breeding-haunts. The practice has now been prohibited, and the 

 ducks are said to be f/^creasino" in numbers. The nest is an ordinary 

 structure of fair dimensions, made in the usual duck fashion of reeds, 

 grasses, &c., and is, in India at least, nearly always placed either very 

 close to the water or in the water itself amongst the vegetation growing in 

 the shallows. Inside the nest there are, of course, feathers and down 

 in greater or smaller amounts, frequently not mu<h : but. in addition 

 to this, there appears generally to be a sort of .-ub>idiary lining composed 

 of finer grasses and weeds than are used in the bod}- of the nest. This- 

 characteristic of the nest is rather marked in < ontrast to the majority 

 of other ducks' nests, but it is well authenticated and worthy of notice. 



Where the birds are most numerous, several nests may be found in close 

 proximity to one another ; and as the birds are close sitters, finding them 

 is a matter of little difficult}-. 



In Kashmir the first few birds breed in the end of April, but not many 

 till the becrinning of June : and it was in this month that the regular trade 

 in their eggs used to commence. They appear to h^y from six to ten 

 eggs, possibly one or two more occasionally ; but such occasions cannot be 

 frequent, as Hume's collectors never succeeded in finding more than ten. 



In the basin of the Mediterranean thev woul 1 seem sometimes to place 



