242 CAS ARC A FERRUGINEA 



the Irrawaddy flotilla, once saw four of these birds feeding on, or at least close to, a 

 corpse at a place called Thayetmyo on the Irrawaddy River, Burma, some two 

 hundred miles above its mouth. He has actually seen them feeding on the intestines 

 of a putrid buffalo in that country. 



Courtship and Nesting. The Ruddy Sheldrake may be classed as a distinctly 

 early breeder. In the regions about the mouth of the Danube young birds were seen 

 on May 30 (Seebohm, 1885), while in Asia Minor, near Smyrna, all clutches were 

 hatched and the young birds taken to the salt lakes by early May (Danford, 1878; 

 Selous, Ibis, ser. 7, vol. 6, p. 410, 1900). Young have been found as early as the sec- 

 ond half of March in the warm desert regions about Merv, in Transcaspia (Loudon, 

 1910), while on the Marka Kul, in Russian Turkestan, young in down were taken on 

 June 7 (Finsch, 1879). Perhaps the greatest breeding area is in the highlands of 

 Tibet. They hatch there by the end of May (Walton, 1906), but in the higher alti- 

 tudes the season may be delayed till much later, at least till the end of June (Hume 

 and Marshall, 1879). In Transbaikalia they breed in the middle of May (Tacza- 

 nowski, 1873), but in Mongolia the first young were seen on June 16 (Prjevalski, 

 1878). 



The sexes remain together exactly in the manner of geese, and exhibit the utmost 

 attachment for each other. That they pair for life seems highly probable, consider- 

 ing the fact that they remain in pairs during the winter, and that even the migrating 

 flocks are composed of paired birds. Many stories of their devotion to each other 

 fill the volumes of ornithological literature, and need not be repeated in detail here. 

 Radde (1884) says that if one of a pair is shot in the breeding season the other will 

 follow the hunter for hours, trumpeting and flying at him incessantly. The classical 

 example, however, is to be found in the Indian legend that in a pair of these birds 

 were embodied the "souls of erring lovers, who have loved not wisely but too well," 

 and were condemned "thenceforth to pass the night, the season of their trans- 

 gressions, apart, on opposite banks of some stream, each ever praying the other for 

 permission to cross, and each compelled sternly to refuse." The lovers' appeal to 

 each other — " Ahna sukta, Chackwa" (May I come, Chackwa) and " Nai, Chackwi " 

 (No, Chackwi), — is said to resemble closely the call-notes of the mates. Hume and 

 Marshall (1879) cynically remark, that in these degenerate days, either the world 

 is more virtuous, or celestial vigilance less keen, for it is certain that except in the 

 case of very narrow rivers, alike by day and night, Chackwa and Chackwi are to be 

 found on the same side of the water. He denies having ever heard the legend except 

 through Europeans, but Baker (1908) insists that he has heard it repeatedly from 

 natives. 



During the mating period the male is particularly chivalric and pugnacious, so 

 that in confinement he becomes a menace to other animals and even to small children. 



