94 
ANAS PCECILORHYNCHA 
the same birds ever lay twice in one year. In Mysore, November and December are 
the months given by Hume and Marshall (1879). Baker (1908) gives the months of 
July and August as the principal breeding period in Bengal, though some nest 
earlier. In Mymensingh and Sylhet he has seen adults with young in April, while 
eggs have been taken in August. Old birds have been found in Manipur paired in 
April but nests have been found as late as October. In one place in Manipur 
eighteen miles from Imphal, flappers were found in every stage of development 
toward the end of the rains. 
Nothing is known of the courtship, except for a note by Heinroth (1911) who 
says their display closely resembles that of the Mallard. It would be extremely 
interesting if an accurate comparison of the display in the two species could be 
made. 
The nest is of the usual duck type: a compact structure of grasses, rushes and 
weeds, and almost always lined with down. It is almost invariably placed on the 
ground near the water. Hume, however, found a nest in a tree on a horizontal 
“trifurcation” of a bough, and nine inches above the water. Ridges between rice- 
fields seem to be favorite nesting places (Baker, 1908). 
The normal clutch is about the same as that of the Mallard, that is eight to ten 
and often fewer. The maximum recorded seems to be fourteen (Woods in Baker, 
1908). The eggs are of a short elliptical form, devoid of gloss, or only slightly glossy, 
and white or grayish white in color. They measure 52.5-58.5 by 42-45.5 mm. (E. 
W. Oates, 1902), and are about the same length as those of the Mallard, but slightly 
wider. The incubation period, according to Heinroth (1908), is about twenty- 
nine days, but it is probably no longer than the Mallard’s, and Mr. Wormald’s 
home-bred strain hatch in twenty-six to twenty-eight days. Although the behavior 
of the parent birds during the incubation period has never been described in detail, 
it seems safe to presume that the male stays wdth the female at least until after the 
young are hatched, as is the case with most ducks in which the sex plumages are 
similar. Butler (in Hume and Marshall, 1879) says the nests are easy to discover, 
as the old birds are generally in pairs close by, either swimming in the water 
or sitting on the bank. Sometimes the birds wheel round and round in the air just 
above the nest, says Baker (1908), and refuse to leave even after the nest has been 
rifled. 
Status. No specific information is available as to whether this bird is holding 
its own. 
Enemies. There is no information on this point, excepting a solitary note by 
Doig (in Hume and Marshall, 1879) who speaks of finding a nest destroyed and the 
eggs broken, the culprits evidently being a family of otters. 
