Nests and eggs of Indian birds : rough draft / by Allan Hume.

  • Allan Hume
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nests and eggs of Indian birds : rough draft / by Allan Hume. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Long1 ago Dr. Adams recorded that he had “ found the Anas rutila breed- ing among the rocks surrounding the fresh and salt-water lakes of Ladak, and that Bernicla indica and Anser albifrons were seen in great numbers in June and July on the Chimmanraree (Tso-mourari) Lake. These lakes are about as far north as it is safe at present for Europeans to travel. Mr. F. R. Mallet remarks in epistola : “ As to the Brahminy Ducks (Casarca rutila) I first observed them in Thibet north of the Niti Pass, at an elevation of about 14,000 feet, on a shallow stagnant pond. There were the old pair and eight young-ones unable to fly. I bagged all the latter, but the old parties did not see the fun of it at all and kept out of range. This year I first saw a solitary one in Spiti on a small shallow pond about 13,000 feet. “ In neither of these cases was there much vegetation ; in fact, almost none. Afterwards we saw perhaps two dozen old and young in the streams flowing into the Indus in Ladak (part of the Cashmere territory). These streams are rapid but smooth, and bordered by coarse grassy plains ; from a mile to two miles wide, marshy near the middle. They contain plenty of small fish, and the Ducks I shot near the Niti had a very fishy taste. “ These streams are about 14,000 to 15,000 feet above the sea, and there were lots of Geese on one of them. “ I never saw f Brahminies' on the rough streams and torrents, except north of the first high ranges of the Himalayas, at elevations of 13,000 to 15,000 feet. “ They are not found in the outer high ranges of the Himalayas themselves, but in Thibet, Ladak, &c. 958.—Anas boschas, Lin. The Mallard only breeds within our limits, so far as we yet know, in the marshes and lakes of Cashmere. There it nests abundantly, building its coarse grass nest, more or less lined with down and feathers, in clumps of rushes, beneath the overhanging grass at the edges of watercourses or even in rice fields. It lays in May and the first week in June. Twelve is the largest number of eggs seen in any nest by my collector (a native), who examined hundreds of them. There is quite a trade in the eggs of this species and Aythya nyroca at Sirinugger, and my man went out daily almost for a month in one of the egging boats. The boatmen told him that they had found as many as sixteen eggs in one Mallard's nest! Mr. Brooks says in epistold: “ The Mallard's nest I took was amongst rushes in a rather dry spot of one of the Cashmere lakes; it was built of straw and dry rushes, and lined with the bird's own down. Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the nidification of this species in the Valley of Cashmere :— “ Lays in the first week of May. Eggs, long ovato-pyriform. Size, 2*27 by 1*55. Color, dirty white with a tinge of yellowish green near sepia. The eggs of the Mallard vary a good deal in size and color. In shape they differ little, and are moderately broad regular ovals, not unfrequently slightly compressed towards one end. In texture the shell is very fine and smooth, and has a faint gloss. The egg is quite devoid of markings, and when freshly laid has a dull pale greenish tint; but as incubation proceeds it changes to
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