INDIA N D UCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 583 



weather on a rock-bound coast — scores of boats conveying the richer 

 pilgrims to a shallow of special sanctity, a hundred yards below the 

 point, were ceaselessly plying backwards and forwards crowded and 

 crammed with human beings, — hundreds of gaudy flags were fluttering 

 from the topmost points of gigantic bamboos planted near the water's 

 eclo-o, — yet totally regardless of sounds and sights that might have startled 

 the boldest bird, the old Brahmin ies dawdled about the opposing bank of 

 the Ganges, distant barely five hundred yards from the clamorous strug- 

 gling rainbow-coloured mass, as though the vagaries were no concern 

 of theirs and signified no more than a convocation of ants." 



They are very carnivorous and will take almost anything they can get 

 including fish, flesh, and all kinds of grain, water weeds, seed and growing 

 crops, in which they are sometimes found grazing like geese. There 

 can be little doubt also that they sometimes fall so low as to ■take to offal. 



Their flesh is distinctly bad, on a par with that of the Whistler and 

 the Cotton Teal at their worst, and little better than that of the White 

 Eye or Shoveller. 



The Ruddy Sheldrake though an emigrant from the plains of India is 

 yet amongst the few ducks which breed within our limits, as it frequents 

 many of the lofty valleys of the Himalayas for this purpose. It has not 

 been found breeding there below 10,000 feet, and Hume says its nest 

 has been taken as high as 16,000 feet. 



In Southern Russia, Asia Minor and Central Asia the normal site 

 chosen by this duck is either the deserted burrow of some animal or a 

 natural crevice or hole in a mountain side or bank, sometimes on level 

 ground. In the Himalayas the Brahminy breeds more or less in com- 

 pany, though the nests may be some distance apart. They are here 

 generally placed in holes or crevices in the high cliffs overhanging 

 streams or lakes, generally close to but at other times some distance from 

 them. The nest-holes are often at very great heights from the ground, 

 and as the nestlings have been seen on the water when very youn°" 

 indeed, it follows of necessity that they are taken there by their parents. 



The Ladakhis say that they are carried in the feet, and this I think 

 must be the case, though Hume on the contrary considers it more likely 

 that they are carried on the backs of the old birds. His argument is 

 that the feet are not adapted to grasping, but if a strong adult bird could 

 not grasp, with sufficient strength, to hold up a nestling, how could the 



