File:Indian sporting birds (1915) (14770432793).jpg

Identifier: indiansportingbi00finn (find matches)
Title: Indian sporting birds
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Finn, Frank, 1868-1932 Hume, Allan Octavian, 1829-1912 Marshall, Charles Henry Tilson, 1841-
Subjects: Birds -- India Game and game-birds -- India
Publisher: London : Francis Edwards
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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insects. Sec, like a typical duck. The brown young birdsare good eating, but the adults, though not ill-flavoured, areinclined to be hard ; they should be cooked and served like geese.On the water the bird sits high with the stern raised, likea goose, but both there and on land the neck is carried ina graceful curve, and when courting the male arches his neckand bends down his head, slightly expanding his wings afterthe fashion of a swan, only much less. The comb-duck swimswell, and dives vigorously if pressed ; in flight it is intermediatein style between a duck and a goose ; the male, conspicuous byhis size and comb, acts as the leader. It flies and feeds by day,retiring to the trees at night ; it is usually very silent, but thenote when heard is variously described, sometimes as loud andgoose-like, sometimes as a low guttural quack, or, in the caseof the male, as a grating sound ; probably only the female hasthe loud call. The pair seem nmch attached, and the male acconipanies .^*
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COTTON-TEAL 47 the female in her search of a nesting-site in the trees ; sucha site is a hole, or tbe place where several large branchesdiverge; an old nest of another large bird has been used, andeven a hole in a bank ; and the nest has even been said to besometimes placed on the ground among rushes by the water.The eggs are of an unusually polished appearance for a ducks,and yellowish-white; about a dozen are laid, some time betweenJune and September. The ducklings in down are brown andwhite above and white below. The nukta is as well off for names as might be expected ;in Telugu it is Jutu chiUuiva, in Canarese Dod sarle haki, andin Uriya Nakihansa ; Neerkoli is the name in Coimbatore, andTau-hal in Burma, though the Karens call it Boickhang. Cotton-Tcal. Nettopus coromandelianus. Girri, Hindustani. The jolly little cotton-teal, smallest of Indian ducks, is not ateal properly speaking, and is indeed sometimes considered to bea kind of goose ; this, however, is also wide of the mark

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