110 NATURAL HISTORY. 



the creeks of Bombay harbour. This was on the 28th May, very 

 late for a migrant bird. They are said to run sometimes, but I never 

 saw even a winged flamingo so far forget his dignity. It is probably 

 known to most of my readers that flamingoes shovel up their food 

 with the upper mandible, turning the head quite upside down, in the 

 position of the Gordian acrobat, " with his grisly head appearing 

 in the centre of his thighs." I have seen drawings of a variation of 

 the bill of the domestic duck, produced by cultivation and selection, 

 exactly like that of the flamingo. The breed was said to be German, 

 but how these ducks fed was not recorded by my authority. A flock 

 of flamingoes inflight, with the sunlight on their red and white plumage, 

 is a lovely sight. They usually fly in a rather irregular wavering 

 line, the centre birds much higher than the flankers ; and I have 

 heard a flock likened to " a drunken rainbow." The native names 

 are Rajhdns (or king-goose) and Rohi. The latter is so like the 

 name of the Nilgai in Mahratta that I once supposed myself to be 

 going in pursuit of the " blue bull," when my guide was really 

 taking me to a flock of flamingoes. 



Heal wild geese do not come into the Deccan or Khandesh, as 

 far as I am aware. The "black-backed goose," il comb-duck" or 

 " nukta" (Sarliidioruis melanonotus) is found more or less (generally 

 less) over the whole regiou ; but many people consider him rather a 

 duck, and his habits on the water are those of a duck, though his 

 flight is that of a goose. This bird may be considered the repre- 

 sentative here of the South American Muscovy ducks, which 

 essentially tropical birds have got their Hyperborean name by reason 

 of a funny confusion between " Musk" and Muscovy. They are 

 supposed at certain seasons to have a flavour of musk. The only 

 other bird of these waters having any pretence to goosehood is the well- 

 known ruddy shelldrake called "Brahminy duck" and "Brahminy 

 goose," and by natives all over India " Chakwa-chah&i." It really has 

 much of the build and flight of a goose, and seems to me to lead to the 

 true geese from the shelldrakes, as the " nukta" does from the ducks. 

 Particularly it has a goose's habit of grazing on young grass or 

 corn, and this makes me very unwilling to accept Mr. Hume's 

 charge against it of eating carrion. This idea may have arisen 

 from a mistake between this bird and the similarly coloured Brahminy 

 kite (Haliastur indus) caused by the mirage which hangs over 

 the sandbanks that they both haunt. I have myself carefully 

 stalked what I took for a Brahminy duck in the bed of the Tapti, 



