362 Mr. 0. Salvin’s Five Months’ Birds’-nesting 
whole mass, from the colour on their expanded wings, looking 
like an animated rosy cloud. They are extremely difficult of ap¬ 
proach ; and I only succeeded in shooting one, which proved to he 
a splendid male. On dissecting this bird, I found in the gizzard 
nothing but the vegetable matter that grows at the bottom of 
these lagoons; I am therefore led to suppose that this forms the 
principal part of its food, and not the worms which burrow in 
the mud, as Mr. Darwin suggests. (‘ Naturalist's Voyage/ new 
ed. page 66.) We found the bird equally abundant at Djendeli 
throughout the month of May, but obtained no certain clue to 
its breeding localities or nesting habits : the Arabs could tell us 
nothing, and we were unable to discover anything ourselves. 
132. Casarca rtjtila. (Ruddy Shieldrake.) 
Though this bird is numerous in all the salt lakes of the, 
elevated plains, its egg is one of the most difficult to obtain. 
One nest only rewarded our labours. The rarity of the eggs is 
hardly so surprising, when the situation chosen by this bird for 
its nest is considered. It selects a hole or crevice of a cliff for 
its breeding place, and associates with the Raven, the Black 
Kite, and Egyptian Vulture during the period of the reproduc¬ 
tion of its young. Almost immediately on encamping at Ain 
Djendeli we used daily to see a pair of Ruddy Shieldrakes pass 
over our tents, their direction always being backwards and 
forwards between the cliffs to the south of us and the small, 
marsh between us and the lake. After careful investigation, 
the nest was discovered to be in a hole in the face of a rock, 
which required all the skill of Mohamed and all our appliances 
of ropes, &c. to reach. The result was four hard-set eggs, 
which are now in the collections of Messrs. Tristram, Simpson, 
J. Wolley, and myself. Though the Arabs were aware of the 
habits of this bird, we did not succeed in obtaining any more 
eggs. It is probable, from its name, that the Mountain Goose 
[Casarca cana ) of South Africa has similar habits. These facts 
suggest the interesting question as to how and when the young, 
when hatched, are conveyed from their aerial home to their 
natural element, upon which I regret to say I can throw no 
satisfactory light. 
