342 FLAMINGOES, DUCKS, AND SCREAMERS. 



lined with fine soft down. In the Frisian Islands the natives construct artificial 

 burrows for these birds to nest in, and make a regular harvest of the eggs ; the 

 number laid by a single bird, if some are from time to time removed, reaching as 

 many as thirty. The note of the sheldrake is a shrill whistle ; and its food usually 

 consists of seaweed and various small marine animals. Its conspicuous white and 

 dark plumage renders the sheldrake easy of detection among the ducks ; but, in 

 India at least, it is extremely shy and difiicult to approach. 



COMMON SHELDIIAKE (1 liat. size). 



„ ^^ ^ _ A very different looking bird to the last is the ruddy sheldrake. 



Buddy Sheldrake. . ^ j ^ 



or Braminy duck {T. casarca), which, while but a rare visitor to the 



British Islands and North-Western Europe generally, breeds in Spain, the valley 

 of the Danube, and southern Russia in great numbers, and thence extends thi-ough 

 Persia, Turkestan, and South Siberia to Amurland and Japan ; while in winter it 

 visits India, Burma, and China in swarms. Although so largely migratory in Asia 

 and non-migratory in Europe, the occurrence of this species during the winter in 

 North Africa indicates that some individuals make a periodical move even in the 

 western portion of its habitat. 



The greater part of the plumage of the Braminy is a full orange-brown, but in 

 the summer the male has a black ring round the neck ; while at all times the point 

 of the wing and wing-coverts are pale buffy white, the primaries, rump, and tail- 

 feathers blackish leaden grey, and the secondaries rather lighter, with a brilliant 



