244 CASARCA FERRUGINEA 



natives in India are said to eat it (Jesse, 1903). The Tartars of Russia even con- 

 sidered it as dangerous food (Latham, 1785). According to Hume and Marshall 

 (1879) these ducks are edible only when skinned, which renders them less fishy, 

 though even then they are dry or tasteless. Their occasional practice of feeding on 

 carrion has already been referred to. 



Status. There is no indication of any general decrease in the numbers of this 

 species, though in the European regions it may very well be diminishing. Its intel- 

 ligence, however, removes it from all immediate danger of extermination. 



Enemies. So far as is known, man is its only serious enemy, since it is apparently 

 well able to protect itself against birds of prey, and probably also against foxes and 

 other vermin. 



Damage. In the Crimea these birds were once reported as doing incredible 

 damage to the millet-fields. Five thousand birds were feeding in one district twice 

 a day, and the crop of one specimen, killed after feeding, was found to contain from 

 one and a half to two and a half ounces of this grain (Radde, 1854). 



Hunt. In few parts of its range is the Ruddy Sheldrake hunted as an object of 

 food, while in Tibet, Mongolia, and perhaps in Burma it receives protection on 

 account of its religious significance. In other places stories of its eating carrion have 

 made it an object of suspicion. Nevertheless it is seen in the markets of India (Hume 

 and Marshall, 1879) and in the poultry-shops of Smyrna (Yarrell, 1856). In Bul- 

 garia the adult birds are caught in nets, or the young captured, to be raised for the 

 purpose mentioned under the paragraph on Daily Movements. Hume and Mar- 

 shall (1879) and Baker (1908) have much to say of the difficulty of shooting them in 

 India, and the former recommend a small-bore rifle, as about the only method of 

 bringing them to bag. 



Behavior in Captivity. The Ruddy Sheldrake has probably always been kept 

 in zoological collections. Indeed, the Chenalopex or Fox-goose of the ancient Greeks 

 may well have been this species, and not the Nile Goose. In modern times it was 

 kept by Catherine the Great of Russia in her gardens at Tsarkoe Selo, but since the 

 "divine Catherine" would not permit the wings of her exotic birds to be mutilated, 

 they would ordinarily disappear at the approach of cold weather (Pallas, 1831). In 

 the Balkans, in Turkey, and among the Bedouins, they are kept in confinement for 

 ornament, and because of their vigilance (Reiser, 1894; Petenyi, Zeitschr. f. Ornith., 

 vol 1, p. 33, 1884; von Heuglin, 1873). The London Gardens, however, do not seem 

 to have had specimens before 1850 (Sclater, 1880). 



