270 
ANAS CAPENSIS 
in the Kilimandjaro district (young in down March 17 — Sjostedt, 1910). At 
Nakuru Lake, East Africa, a female in October had greatly enlarged ovaries (V. 
G. L. van Someren, 1922). 
In South Africa eggs were found in July and both eggs and young in August near 
Carnarvon, Cape Colony. For the only good account of the nesting habits we are 
indebted to Littledale (1908). He describes three nests, undoubtedly belonging to 
this Teal. Two of these were placed under very thin and scanty bushes which did not 
conceal them from view. The third was well hidden under a thick bush. The nest 
depressions were nine inches in diameter, and three inches deep, the bottoms almost 
bare and the sides encircled with down. Once when he frightened a female off the 
nest, she returned over the nest as though she wanted to cover the eggs before leav- 
ing, although the observer was in a boat twenty yards away at the time. One of the 
nests which he found on an island in Van Wijks Vlei was evidently placed on the 
site of an old nest of an Egyptian Goose. It contained one old egg belonging to that 
species, lying among the nine eggs of the Cape Teal. On subsequent visits to the 
island the mother Teal left her nest a few minutes after the observer’s arrival, and 
on each occasion the eggs were carefully covered over with down. 
From Littledale’s notes it is evident that the drake stays in the neighborhood of 
the nest, for he says he never found a hen bird alone. The number of eggs seems to 
vary from seven to nine, and the incubation period as nearly as he could estimate it, 
was twenty-one days, possibly more. 
The eggs are yellowish-white in color and measure 37 by 48 mm. (Sjostedt, 1910), 
or sometimes up to 54 mm. in length (Nehrkorn,yide Reichenow, 1900). 
Status. Reference to the Distribution will show the general scarcity of this 
bird over almost the whole of its range. On the Natron Lakes, Kilimandjaro low- 
lands, although comparatively well represented, it was less numerous than the Red- 
bill, Cape Shoveller or South African Pochard (Sjostedt, 1910). For some reason 
museum specimens have always been exceedingly rare in American collections. 
Dr. A. K. Haagner, Director of the National Zoological Gardens at Pretoria, 
writes me under date of September, 1922, that the game-laws of South Africa are now 
framed in such a w’ay as to give ducks a good chance in the breeding season. He adds 
that the lakes are not being drained but that the vleis are drying up. Whether or 
not this is the direct result of intensive agriculture, as seems the case in our own 
West, I do not know. 
Food Value. Littledale says the Cape Teal is very good eating but not so good 
as the Red-bill {Anas erythrorhyncha) . 
Behavior in Captivity. This species seems never to have been imported alive 
into Europe or America. 
