92 THE NUKHTA OR COMB DUCK. 
in Rajputana (except in the north-western portions,) in the 
Punjab, Cis-Sutlej, the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, the 
Central India Agency, Chota Nagpur, Bengal, west of the 
Brahmaputra, (excluding perhaps the Sunderbans, Jessore and 
one or two others of the deltaic districts), the valley of Assam 
right up to Sadiya, and the northern two-thirds at any rate of 
Pegu,* it is more or less common, at one season or another, zz 
suitable localities. 
It is not as yet known to visit any country outside our limits, 
but I should expect it to be found hereafter in Upper or 
Independent Burma. 
WITHIN THE limits above assigned there are many more or | 
_less extensive tracts where this species has never been observed, 
and where probably it does not occur, except accidentally. Only 
certain localities suit its habits, and of these many only suit it 
during particular portions of the year. It is not, strictly speak- 
ing, migratory ; but while in some few districts it really is a per- 
manent resident, and may be there found commonly throughout 
the year, in many it is only a seasonal visitant. Thus it almost 
entirely deserts the North-Western Provinces, Eastern Rajpu- 
tana, Cutch, and the Deccan, during the dry hot season, though 
it is abundant in these during the rains, and in a lesser degree 
during the cold weather. On the other hand it is chiefly during 
the hotter and drier parts of the year that it is found in the 
damper low-lying deltaic districts of Bengal. 
It is a good deal of a tree Duck, often perches on trees, gene- 
rally lays in holes of trees, and it much prefers well-wooded 
tracts, not dense forest like the White-Winged Wood-duck, 
but well-wooded, level, well-cultivated country. It is a lake bird 
too, one that chiefly affects rush and reed-margined broads, not 
bare edged pieces of water like the Sambhar Lake, and it is 
comparatively rarely met with on our larger rivers. I have shot 
them alike in the Ganges and the Jumna during the cold season, 
but it is far more common to find them in jhils and bhils. I 
have never found it in hilly ground, and very rarely in s7zal/ 
ponds. Fairly large pieces of water, fringed and dotted about 
with rushes and aquatic herbage, in level, well-cultivated country, 
boasting a good sprinkling of large mango groves are its favou- 
rite haunts, and with these tastes and predilections it will readi- 
ly be understood that many minor portions of the provinces 
and territorial sub-divisions, which have been above included in 
its range, are more or less unsuited to it, and that in some of 
these it will be rare, and in others practically unknown. Of 
course in the case of birds like these, which on the first burst 
 * Mr. Oates says that this species is ‘‘a constant resident in Pegu; common 
in the Eugmah swamp in Upper Pegu, but not found in any quantities elsewhere. 
It is not discriminated apparently by the natives from the Pintail; at any rate both 
go by the same name, ‘ ¢an-bay’ or Jungle Duck.” 
