DENDEOCYGNA. 287 



A straggler in Sind. Breeds in the N. W. Provinces during July 

 and August. In Ceylon it is said to breed from January to March, 

 usually on trees, in the proximity of a large sheet of water. 



Sub-Family, TADOKNIN^, (Anatin^, 8w.) 



Plumage rufous ; bill flattened towards the tip, with a horny ter- 

 mination ; hind toe long and slightly lobed. 



Dendrocygna, Sw. — Whistling Ducks. 

 Bill rather large, of uniform width ; secondaries long, also the tarsi ; 

 2nd, 3rd and 4th primaries sub-equal and longest. 



Dendrocygna javanica, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. 199. 

 Dendrocygaa awsuree, Syltes, P. Z. 8. 1832, p. 168 ; Jerd. B. Iiid. iii. 

 p. 789. Dendrocygna arcuata, Cuv. apud. Horsf., apud. auct., nee. 

 Horsf. — The Whistling Teal. 



Top of head and occiput dull wood brown, and a narrow streak of the 

 same continued down the middle of the back of the neck from behind 

 the nape; sides of the face and neck fulvous brown ; chin and 

 throat albescent ; lower neck and breast yellowish chestnut, gradually 

 passing into the light chestnut of the under surface of the body; 

 vent and under tail-coverts albescent ; back and scapulars dusky 

 brown, the feathers edged with dingy fulvous chestnut, forming lunules ; 

 upper tail-coverts chestnut ; tail brown, tipped slightly paler ; pri- 

 maries and secondaries black ; greater coverts and tertiaries dusky 

 brown; lesser and median coverts deep maroon; axillaries black; 

 bill dusky brown, darker at the tip ; irides deep brown ; eyelids bright 

 yellow to pale golden ; legs plumbeous. 



Length. — ]7'5 to 18 inches, wing 8 to 8'5, tail 2 to 2'12, bill at front 

 1*5, tarsus 1'75. 



Hob. — Sind, Punjab, N. W. Provinces and the Indian Peninsula 

 generally, but not in the more arid tracts, where water is not abundant 

 as in the interior of Eajputana. According to Hume, there is scarcely 

 any suitable locality within the limits of the Indian empire, including 

 Burmah, Ceylon, the Andamans and Nicobars, in which this species does 

 not occur either as a permanent resident or a seasonal visitant. It is 

 essentially a tree duck, and in the breeding season especially affects 

 the larger pieces of water, in the vicinity of trees. At other times it 

 is found in nearly every suitable piece of water. It nidificates on trees, 

 making a nest of twigs, &c., or occupying old nests of Herons, &c. In 

 Sind it has been found breeding in great numbers on the Eastern Narra, 

 and I have taken a nest of 11 eggs at the One Tree Tank, 6 miles from 

 Kurrachee. Mr. Doig, who took its eggs in the Narra, found 10 as the 

 greatest number from any one nest. " The nests," he says, "were com- 

 posed of green twigs, and in some instances of leaves of the large bulrush 

 trodden down to make a platform." Mr. Hume {Game Birds) records 

 instances of the curious fact of this species carrying its young in its feet 

 from the nest to the water. Mr. Kemp in the Futtehpore District adds his 

 testimony to the fact, having obtained, an egg from off a narrow ridge 

 where the bird was seen to carry it, just before he shot it. Mr. Hume 



