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 difficult to approach. 
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COMMON SHELDRAKE (1 nat. size). 
A very different looking bird to the last is the ruddy sheldrake, 
or Braminy duck (7. 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 through 
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 brilhant 
Ruddy Sheldrake. 
