146 cassell's book of birds. 



it is an excellent swimmer, and upon an emergency dives with facility. Its flight is strong and 

 enduring, and its voice loud, but by no means unpleasing. Its food consists principally of vegetable 

 materials ; Jerdon, indeed, says he has been told that it will sometimes eat carrion, but adds that he 

 has never seen it so employed, though he has often observed it feeding in fields of corn. Until the 

 approach of the breeding season the Brahminy Ducks live very peaceably in company with other 

 swimming birds, but about that time they become very pugnacious and quarrelsome. Towards the 

 end of April or the beginning of May the different pairs retire to their appropriate nesting-places, 

 which are generally in holes in the ground. In North-west Africa, Calvin found one of their nests in 

 the cleft of a perpendicular rock, which had likewise been the nesting-place of Robins, Kites, and 

 Vultures. In Siberia they not unfrequently build in the holes of Siberian marmots, and occasionally in 

 hollow trees. The nest, which is composed of dry grass and lined with down, usually contains from 

 four to six roundish thin-shelled eggs, of a glossy white or yellowish white. As soon as the young 

 brood are sufficiently dry after their escape from the shell they leap from the nest and make their 

 way to the nearest pond, where, under the careful superintendence of their parents, they pass the 

 earlier part of their lives. At first they are clad in a suit of down, which is brownish grey upon the 

 upper part of the body with the exception of a whitish spot upon the breast ; the lower surface is of 

 a dirty white. Pallas states that in Mongolia these birds are regarded as sacred. 



The SHELDRAKES (Vulpanser) differ from the above birds in the formation of their beak, the 

 comparative shortness of their wings and legs, and in the coloration of their plumage. In this group 

 the upper mandible is broadest towards its extremity, and in the male exhibits an excrescence at i.s 

 base, which swells considerably during the breeding season, and afterwards almost entirely disappears. 



THE COMMON SHELDRAKE. 

 The Common Sheldrake (Vulpatiscr ladortia) is a beautiful bird, with head and neck of dark 

 glossy green. The shoulders exhibit two large black spots; a patch on the breast, the centre of 

 the back, the wing-covers, side of the body and upper portion of the tail are pure white. The centre 

 of the breast and belly are greyish black ; a broad band on the neck, and some of the upper 

 secondaries are of a bright reddish brown. The lower tail-covers are yellowish ; the quills blackish 

 grey, and the wings decorated with a metallic green patch. The eye is dark rust-red, the beak 

 carmine-red, and foot flesh-brown. This species is two feet long, and three feet and a half broad ; the 

 wing measures fourteen inches, and the tail four inches and a half. The female is similarly but less 

 beautifully coloured. In young birds the nape is grey, the upper part of the back and under side are 

 yellowish grey ; there is also no band upon their breasts. The range of the Sheldrake extends north 

 to about the middle of Sweden, and south as far as North Africa, where they are to be met with on 

 every lake during the winter, and make their appearance in countless multitudes. They are likewise 

 numerous upon the coasts of China and Japan, as well as upon the great lakes of Siberia and Central 

 Asia ; nevertheless, they decidedly prefer salt water to fresh, and are always most abundant upon the 

 sea itself, or upon salt-water lakes. In Great Britain these birds are indigenous, and breed upon every 

 part of the coast. Even in extensive collections of water-fowl, where various species of Ducks are 

 seen in close proximity to each other, the Sheldrakes are conspicuously beautiful ; but when seen 

 swimming on the sea or crowding the surface of some large lake, the eye is enchanted with the 

 variety and elegance of their movements. In Africa they add an unspeakable charm to the lake 

 scenery, the brilliancy and liveliness of their colours rendering them prominent objects at a very 

 considerable distance. Even upon the islands near Schleswig, Jutland, and Denmark, where they are 

 almost household birds, they invariably call forth the admiration of the beholder. In their general 



