52 INDIAN SPOETING BIRDS 



It is not good eating, though it is rendered more tolerable by 

 being skinned, as is the case with so many rank birds of this 

 family; and might be very well left alone by sportsmen if it 

 would only let them alone. This, however, it will not do ; it 

 has a very practical working knowledge of the range of a gun, 

 and gets up just out of shot, trumpeting out a duet with its 

 partner, which naturally puts all the other fowl on the alert. 

 As a remedy for this, Hume recommends shooting a few with 

 the rifle, which so frightens the survivors as to make them keep 

 their distance to some purpose — so far off will they then get up 

 that other fowl do not consider there is anything to worry about, 

 and disregard them. 



This warning propensity is evidently due to natural noisiness 

 and not to public-spiritedness, for the birds are most unsociable 

 by nature, and, although flocks may sometimes be seen with us 

 in winter, in the breeding season the pairs keep strictly separate, 

 and persecute all other water-fowl, of their own species or any 

 other, including even geese. Even in winter, students of the 

 London park water-fowl may notice that the other birds are 

 nervous of them, and even the mandarin, with all his pluck and 

 bounce, shows by bis manner that he knows he is taking risks 

 in snatching the bread from the mouth of the ruddy sheldrake. 



In Indian limits this bird has only been found breeding at 

 a high elevation in the Himalayas, 10,000 feet and upwards ; 

 the nests are in holes in cliffs, and several are found in the same 

 quarter. The eggs are eight in number as a rule, and creamy- 

 white ; the ducklings mostly sooty-black above and white below ; 

 they will dive for food while in the down, although their parents 

 are strictly surface-feeders. The ruddy sheldrake also breeds 

 from Central Asia west, all along the Mediterranean, and visits 

 China as well as India in winter. In Northern Burma it is very 

 common, and known SLsHintJia. The Hindustani name Chakwa 

 (with the feminine form Chakwi) is not the only one, Surkhab 

 being also used ; Nir-batha or -koli is the name in South India, 

 Mungh in Sind, Bugri in Bengal, the Telugu name is Bapana 

 Chilhiica, and the Marathi Sarza or Chakraicak. 



