THE RUDDY SHELLDRAKE OR BRAHMINY DUCK. 125 
breed. It is very common in Mongolia, where it is chiefly a 
summer visitant, (though some winter in the valley of the 
Hoang-ho,) as it is likewise to Southern Siberia, and the whole 
of Central Asia (Turkestan) to the Caspian. It is not a northern 
bird, and in Asia does not seem, even in summer, to range much 
north of the 52nd parallel. 
Westwards it is common in Afghanistan, Beluchistan and 
many parts of Persia ; in Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Pales- 
tine, and the entire northern portions of Africa, to which many 
are, however, only winter migrants. 
In Europe it is nowhere common at any season except in 
the basin of the Black Sea. In the rest of Southern Europe 
it is rare, (some few breeding, it is said, in Spain,) while to 
Northern Europe, in most countries of which, (as in Great 
Britain,) its occasional occurrence has been recorded, it isa 
mere straggler. 
THE BRAHMINY is first seen in the Kashmir Lakes, the 
Nepal valley and other places inthe lower southern ranges of 
the Himalayas, about the end of September or the beginning 
of October. By the end of the latter month they are generally 
pretty well distributed through the whole of Northern India, 
and during November they arrive inthe Deccan and further 
south. 
The majority leave Southern India before the 1st of April, 
and Northern India by the first week in May, but Messrs. David- 
son* and Wenden both say that some remain in the Deccan 
until late in the hot weather ; others in Upper India have 
noticed individual birds of this species late in May, and it may 
be that some of the later hatched broods do not breed in 
their first year, and that these are the laggards. 
This is in India, as a rule, essentially a fresh-water Duck ; it 
is rare to find them on the sea-coast or even in estuaries where 
the water is salt, but Jerdon says he has seen thousands on the 
Chilka Lake, which is, I believe, mainly sea water. 
They arrive in flocks, and before leaving in April gather 
again into these, but during the winter they are almost in- 
variably seen in pairs. Often several pairs may be found congre- 
gated in the same place, but even then each pair comes out 
distinct on any alarm, and acts on its own behoof and without 
reference to the others. 
It is in the broad. beds of our Indian rivers, where 
clean sandbanks break the river into many channels, that 
the Ruddy Shelldrake most especially delights, and in such 
* Thus Davidson says:—Common along the sandy islands and banks of all the 
largish rivers in the Deccan, arriving in November and remaining till very late 
in the hot weather ; rare in Tumkur, Mysore, and only seen in two or three instances 
on the larger tanks ; not noticed in the Panch Mahals, but doubtless found along 
the Mahi River, (See also Mr. Theobala’s remarks, ante, note, bottom of p. 123.) 
