YELLOW-BILLED TEAL 
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how difficult to find. Abbott (1861) says it is harder to find than the nest of any 
other bird he knows. No nests were found by Aplin (1894), Crawshay (1907), W. S. 
Brooks (1917) or Peters (MS.). 
Unusual nesting sites were holes in the clay banks of rivers, found by E. W. Wliite 
(1883) in the Province of Cordoba. Perhaps the most remarkable habit ever ascribed 
to a duck has developed in this species in a restricted part of its range (Province of 
Buenos Aires). At Mr. Gibson’s residence near Cape San Antonio they have taken 
to nesting in the curious community dwellings of the Green Parakeet {Myopsittacus 
monachus). These remarkable Parakeet nests, which were at first placed in the low 
tala trees, but of late years have been built in the loftiest eucalyptus, an introduced 
tree of course, are well described by E. Gibson (1880) : “The nests are generally sus- 
pended from the extremities of branches, to which they are firmly built or woven in. 
The new nests consist only of two chambers, the porch and nest proper, and are built 
and inhabited by a single pair of birds. These become gradually added to, till plenty 
of them come to weigh perhaps a quarter of a ton each, and are of a bulk enough to 
fill a large cart. Thorny tala twigs (no branches), firmly interlaced, form the only 
material; and there is no lining to the chambers, even in the breeding-season. Some 
old forest trees have seven or eight of these huge masses suspended to their branches, 
while the ground underneath is strewn with twigs and the remains of fallen nests. 
The entrance to the chambers is almost invariably underneath, or, if on the side, is 
protected by the overhanging eave, doubtless in both cases as a safeguard against 
attacks of the opossum (Didelphys aurita).” The entrances lead into a porch or outer 
chamber; there is never any communication between the apartments of different 
pairs. The larger nests have accommodations for about a dozen pairs. 
The Teal sometimes lay in these nests when deserted, but in certain cases they 
lay their eggs in occupied chambers. It seems to make little difference to the Teal, 
for in such cases the Parakeet usually abandons the nest, whereupon the Teal is said 
to break the Parakeet’s eggs, push them away, and incubate her own (Dabbene, 
1918). 
Another nest location in the eucalyptus woods, first noted by E. Gibson (1920) 
in 1913 was on the top of an accumulation of bark and leaves in a bifurcation of the 
trunk ten or fifteen feet from the ground. The relation between the parrots and the 
Teal in these situations is not entirely clear. The Green Parakeet is said to be a very 
bellicose bird, yet it seems to abandon its nest when the Teal occupies it. Neither 
E. Gibson (1920) nor C. H. B. Grant (1911) says anything about the Teal breaking 
the parrot’s eggs, and this practice, mentioned only by Dabbene (1918) is certainly 
very unusual for a duck, or any other bird for that matter. Dabbene’s information 
seemed to be based solely on the observations of a collector named Rodriguez, and 
I should like to see these facts further verified. The third occupant of these strange 
colonies is sometimes the opossum, but whether he really destroys many eggs of the 
