74 SARCIDIORNIS MELANOTA 



monly seen in other water-fowl, but which is in marked contrast to the violent be- 

 havior of male Muscovies. Finn (1915) found the courting male arching his neck 

 and bending down his head, slightly expanding his wings after the fashion of a swan, 

 only much less. The female does not reciprocate, so far as has been observed, but 

 always takes to flight, is soon overtaken, and forced to yield. The females in the 

 Gardens never produced mature eggs, and apparently had no desire to pair. 



In the wild state, in districts characterized by monsoon rains, the pairing season 

 begins with the rains, while the nesting period is somewhat later, varying in India 

 from June to early September; while in Ceylon the breeding season is in February 

 and March. In South Africa the birds nest in November and December, or even 

 earlier, for half-grown young were found by E. C. Chubb (1908) in late November 

 (25th) in southern Rhodesia. In India some of the young are seen on the wing by 

 early October, but many more are unable to fly before November. 



The Comb Duck selects for a nesting-site the hollows of old deciduous trees, or 

 the depressions between large branches, where they divide a short distance from 

 the ground. Only very rarely do the birds select a ground site; occasionally, as men- 

 tioned by A. Anderson (1874), they appropriate the nest of another species. Both 

 sexes join in the search for a suitable locality, and Anderson saw both birds flying 

 into the nest-tree together, the male uttering a "harsh grating noise." The same 

 writer mentions their nesting in the holes of old ruined forts in the United Prov- 

 inces of India. In Africa very few observations on the nidification have been made, 

 but C. H. Taylor (1907) found that in southeast Transvaal they nest in long grass 

 at the side of a vlei or pan, and once he discovered a nest among the stones of a low- 

 lying hill. When nesting in the trees, they select hollows and branches not far from 

 the ground, often from six to ten feet. In India the mango tree seems to be a favorite 

 choice. Anderson mentions a nest-hole in a banyan tree thirty feet above the ground. 

 Baker speaks of a nest located in a perpendicular bank. 



Materials other than down are used in the formation of the nest, for sticks, dead 

 leaves, grass, and even snake skins have been found. So little has been recorded 

 concerning the size of the clutch that it is difficult to decide on the correct 

 average number. Nine or ten would seem to be a normal complement, though 

 fifteen to twenty, probably the product of two females, have been recorded from 

 one nest. Anderson (1874) speaks of the capture of an emaciated nesting female who 

 had apparently laid the extraordinary number of forty eggs, and he had received 

 other clutches of fifteen to twenty. A still more remarkable nest was described and 

 figured in the London Field of November 27, 1920, p. 772, by T. R. Liveskey. This 

 was situated in a hollow tree twenty -five feet from the ground and contained forty- 

 seven eggs. The writer thought that two or more ducks had laid in this nest, which 

 was certainly the case. They were in different stages of incubation. The eggs 

 measure 60 to 61.5 mm. by 45 to 46 mm., but are rather variable in size. The color 



