SARCIDIOENIS MELAXOXOTES. 1065 



In India it is said to be rare in the south, moderately common during the rainy season, and also in the 

 Deccan (Davidson) ; found in various districts between the Ganges and the Godaveri, where it is recorded from 

 Lohardugga, Sirguja, Sambalpur, Nowagarh, Karial, and Raipur (Ball). It is not uncommon in the cold 

 weather about Calcutta, but is migratory to the North-west Provinces, where Mr. Hume states that it breeds. 

 Westward towards Sindh it is plentiful in certain districts, though it has only recently been obtained in that 

 province. It is found in Jodhpore and in Oodeypore at the Kunkrowlee lake, where Mr. Hume met with it 

 in flocks; it is also recorded from Cutch and Kattiawar, and occurs occasionally at the Sambhur Lake. 

 Eastward of Calcutta it is not generally common, for thougb Blyth notices it as such in Burniah, and Captain 

 Wardlaw Eamsay found it breeding at Tonghoo, it has not been met with in Tenasserim, and does not extend 

 into the Malay peninsula. 



Should the African species be indisputably united with the present, it will extend the range of the Black- 

 backed Goose from North-east Africa to the Zambesi river and Cape Colony, and thence up the west coast to 

 Senegal and Gambia. 



Habits.- — This Goose associates in small parties varying from four to a dozen individuals, and chieflv 

 frequents tanks in which there is much overgrowth — grass, weeds, rushes, &c. Mr. Parker informs me that he 

 has generally found it shy : but in India, according to Jerdon, it is not a particularly wary bird. It is some- 

 times found there in paddy-fields and on very small tanks and water-holes, as is the case in the Eastern 

 Province in Ceylon. Mr. Fisher informs me that the young when frightened take to the jungle, and hide 

 themselves so expeditiously that it is impossible to find them. Its flight is heavy, and when walking it is an 

 ungainly bird, its heavy-looking head and broad tail, combined with its rather awkward gait, lifting its feet 

 high and taking rather long strides, give it any thing but a graceful appearance. Its note, as I have heard it 

 in the Zoologica] Gardens, is a low guttural quack-like sound, between the voice of a Duck and a Goose. 

 "When wounded it is said to dive well. It feeds on grain, grasses, vegetable matter procured in the tanks it 

 frequents, and seeds of water-grasses, a remarkably hard quadrangular variety of which Col. Sykes found in 

 the stomachs of Deccan specimens. 



Nidificaiion. — In Ceylon this Goose breeds, I understand, in February and March ; but in India, according 

 to Mr. Hume, the breeding-time in the North-west Provinces is in July and August. It makes a nest of 

 " sticks, dead leaves, grass, and feathers, at no great height from the ground, either in some large hole in the 

 trunk of a tree, or in the depression between three or four great arms where the main stem divides, at a height 

 of from 6 to 10 feet." Very rarely it is placed on the ground among reeds and sedge. Mr. A. Anderson, in 

 some interesting notes contributed to the 'Ibis/ 1874, says that the male bird assists the female in the selection 

 of the site ; and he has seen them flying into trees together, the male uttering a harsh grating noise. He 

 has also found the nests in holes in old ruined forts. The eggs appear to vary from seven to twelve ; but 

 Mr. Anderson states that fifteen to twenty have been brought to him; and on one occasion a female was 

 captured on her nest containing forty eggs : the nest-hole was in a banyan 30 feet above the ground, and was 

 3 feet deep and 2 in circumference ; the eggs were laid several tiers deep ; and, judging by the emaciated 

 condition of the bird, did not appear to have been the produce of other individuals. The eggs are regular 

 ovals, only slightly more pointed at one end than the other, delicate ivory-white and very highly polished ; 

 they vary from 2 - 22 to 2'48 by 1'65 to 1"75 inches. 



