168 RUDDY SHIELDRAKE. 
These birds assemble in flocks, except when paired in the 
summer. The male and female seem much attached to each 
other. 
They feed early in the morning, and again towards nightfall, 
in corn and stubble fields, resorting thither from the marshes, 
which they otherwise inhabit. 
Yarrell says, “The voice of the bird when flying is not 
unlike the tone of a clarionet; at other times it cries like a 
peacock, especially when kept confined; and now and then 
clucks like a hen.’ 
This bird builds its nest in holes in river banks, such as 
have been burrowed and deserted by animals, or those of natural 
formation. It is lined with feathers of the bird itself, the 
remainder being any sorts of stalks and sticks. 
The eggs are white, and eight or nine or ten in number. 
They are highly polished. 
Male; length, two feet two or three inches, to two feet four. 
The bill, which is red, is depressed in the middle part, and 
there is a raised knob at the base; iris, yellowish brown; head 
on the crown and sides, and neck on the back, buff colour, 
darkening towards the nape and all round, where it becomes 
almost orange brown, with the exception of a black colour, 
which encircles it round the middle; chin, buff colour; breast, 
orange brown; back, orange brown. Greater and lesser wing 
coverts, pale buff white; primaries, leaden grey—nearly black; 
secondaries, leaden grey, the speculum brilliant green; tertiaries, 
orange brown. . Legs and toes, brownish grey; webs, brownish 
rey. 
a als: head on the sides, white; on the crown and the 
neck, mouse grey; throat, white; breast, light ferruginous, paler 
below; back on the upper part, light ferruginous, on the lower 
part dark brown with a tinge of green. The wings have a 
blunt spur at the bend; greater and lesser wing coverts, white, 
forming a_ broad mark on the wing; primaries, brown, the 
edges darker: the secondaries exhibit a green speculum. Tail, 
dark brown with a tinge of green. Webs, black. 
ES 
———————————eee 
