THE LARGER WHISTLING TEAL. 121 
Their food during the cold season, when alone I have 
procured them, consisted apparently mainly of rice, but they 
are very miscellaneous feeders, and I have found in their 
stomachs, not only all kinds of aquatic seeds, bulbs, leaf-shoots, 
and buds, grass, and rush, but small shells, insects, worms, and 
larve, and on one occasion a tiny frog. Stillin the case of 
those I examined, grains of rice, wild and cultivated, constituted 
the bulk of their food. 
Their note is much like that of the smaller species, but 
rather louder and more of a chuckling whistle, and I have only 
heard it when the birds were alarmed, were about to rise, or 
were on the wing. 
They are wilder and more difficult to get at, afford better sport, 
and are to my taste decidedly better eating than the Common 
Whistling Teal. I found them invariably in parties of from six 
to twenty, but on one or two occasions, the parties were dispersed 
all about the pond, and instead of rising at once when the first 
shot was fired, as they usually do, they kept rising in one’s and 
two’s out of the rushes as I pushed through these in a dug-out, 
just as I have often seen the Marbled and White-eyed Ducks do, 
thus affording numerous good, though all rather long, shots. 
My experiences, however, of this species are very limited. 
OF THE nidification of the larger Whistling Teal but little 
seems to be known. So far as it has been observed it is 
similar to that of its smaller congener. I have never myself 
found a nest, and the only eggs I possess were sent me years 
ago with the parents from Saugor. 
The nest was found on the 15th August; it was a large 
hollow in an old tree overhanging a large piece of water, rather 
liberally lined with a few twigs, a good deal of grass, and some 
feathers. It contained seven eggs, a good deal incubated. 
The eggs, except for size and a somewhat superior ‘smooth- 
ness, are precisely like those of the Common Whistling Teal ; 
very broad, regular ovals, moderately smooth to the touch, but 
with no perceptible gloss, and of a dull slightly yellowish white 
colour. Probably, when first laid, the eggs were pure white. 
In length they vary from 2°12 to 2°25; and in breadth from 
1°65 to 1°75. 
THE MALES average a little larger and heavier than the females. 
The following are the dimensions of a fine pair* :— 
Matle.—Length, 20°11 ; expanse, 36°75; wing, 9'2; tail from 
vent, 2°9; tarsus, 2°5 ; bill from gape, 2°44; weight, 1lb. 12 ozs. 
The legs and feet pale leaden blue; webs dusky ; bill dusky 
bluish at base ; irides brown. 
* Last year in Calcutta I carefully recorded all these particulars of over twenty 
specimens, expressly for this work, but unfortunately the paper cannot be found, 
Q 
