3o6 DUCK GROUP 



as in some of the Scottish Isles, serves as the medium in which to 

 drive the tunnel ; while when even this is wantini^, as in some parts of 

 the Hebrides, the birds are perforce compelled to nest in holes and 

 crannies amid rocks ; and it is stated that they have been known to 

 breed on cliffs at such a height above the shore that it seems almost 

 certain the ducklings must be carried down to the water on their 

 mother's back. During the laying-period the two sexes keej) together, 

 and may then be seen fl\'ing in circles round the nesting-burrow, into 

 which the duck will suddenly make a dive with such rapitiity that the 

 onlooker wonders where she has disappeared. Shell-fish, shrimps, 

 small crabs, etc., supplemented by a certain amount of vegetable 

 matter, form the main diet of the sheldrake ; and this diet doubtless 

 accounts for the rank and fishy flavour of its flesh. For the greater 

 part of the year these ducks arc found singly, in pairs, or in trios, and 

 only rarely in flocks. After the eggs are all laid the drake apparently 

 forsakes his partner for a time. On land sheldrake walk well and 

 rapidly ; but they are comparatively poor performers in the air, their 

 flight being heavy and laboured, more like that of swans than of 

 ordinary ducks. Both sexes utter a hansh " quack " ; but in the 

 breeding-season the drake gives vent to a clear rapid note, frequently 

 used as an alarm-cry when the parents arc with their offspring. Dull 

 creamy white is the colour of the eggs, of which from seven to a 

 dozen are usually found in a clutch, although so many as sixteen 

 have been recorded. If the nest be robbed, the duck will go on 

 laj-ing ; and in Denmark, where these birds are induced to lay in 

 burrows prepared for them by the peasants, it is stated that so many 

 as thirty eggs have thus been obtained from a single female. Although 

 a few dead leaves may occasionally be added, the lining of the nest is 

 formed as a rule almost entirely of the down of the parent birds ; this 

 down being ashy grey in colour with silvery white tips to the filaments. 

 In length the eggs vary from slightly more to slightly less than 

 2§ inches. 



Ruddv Sheldrake '^'^^ ^^^^ commonly known in Europe as the ruddy 

 OP Brahminy Duck ^'^cldrake is, as a rule, such a rare visitor to the 

 (Casarea rutila) '^'i^'^'^ ^•''^cs that it has apparently no vernacular 

 name of its own. In earlier days it was generally 

 included in the same genus as the true sheldrake, under the name of 

 radorna rutila ; and when that course was adopted the objection to 

 the title ruddy sheldrake was less marked than it is at present. Now, 

 however, that this bird is made the tj'pe of a genus by itself — some- 



