and constancy to, each other, no sacred reverence _ attaches to
them. It is otherwise in Buddist countries. " It is," says Mr.
Oates, " the sacred and national bird of the Burmese, and the
native name of the Rangoon District is derived from it." " In
Mongolia," says Pere David, " it is the object of a religious respect
on the part of the Lamas," and Prjevalsky too says that
" the Mongols consider the bird sacred."
THE RUDDY SHELLDRAKE breeds, within our limits, only in the
high central portion of the interior of the Himalayas. It nests
always in these hills, in holes, in cliffs overhanging, or at any
rate in more or less close proximity to, streams, lakes, or pools,
at an elevation of not less than 12,000, and cften as high as
16,000 feet.
In other countries, though cliffs are favourite resorts everywhere,
they also nest in all kinds of queer places.
Prjevalsky says:—"They build in holes or clefts in the ground,
and sometimes even in the fireplaces of the villages deserted
by the Mongols, and in the latter places the females while hatching
get almost quite black with soot." Messrs. Elwes and
Buckiey say, that in the Dobrudscha, where it is very common,
" the nest is very difficult to find, as it is always in a hole,
sometimes in the middle of a corn field, and the male bird keeps
watch near by to call the female off her eggs when any one
approaches."
In parts of Southern Russia and Dauria, it lays in holes in
trees and even of fallen logs, and in deserted nests of birds of
prey. Tristram found it breeding in a cliff in Northern Galilee
amongst Griffon Vultures in May, and in the Eastern Atlas
associating with the Raven, the Black Kite and Egyptian
Vulture.
So too in Ladakh its nests have been found associated with
one of the Tibetan Raven.
So far as I can ascertain it lays with us from early in May to
near the end of June, according to situation and season.
The nest holes contain usually a thick pad of down and
feathers, chiefly those of the bird itself, but at times mixed, the
natives aver, with those of the Barred-headed Goose.
The number of the eggs are variously stated by natives at
from 6 to 12, but Dj'bowsky says, writing of them in Dauria,
that they lay from 12 to 16 eggs.
I have seen the old birds with crowds of ducklings on several
of the Tibetan Lakes towards the end of June or early in July,
but this was in old days, when I cared for none of these things,
and I never climbed up to examine a nest-hole, of which many
have been pointed out to me in the cliffs, conspicuous by the
droppings of the birds. But I am quite certain that the
generality of the broods did not contain above eight young
ones, and even if they ever do lay 1 6 eggs, I am quite sure that
they very seldom here hatch off this number.
In the account of the first Yarkand Mission we say, that " this
species was first noticed at the hot springs above Gokra, at an
elevation of 16,000 feet. Then they were seen on small lakes
that are dotted about on the Salt Plain and all along the
Karakash River. The young were at that time—July—scarcely
able to fly ; when approached, the mother made them all dive
by swimming and flapping on to each of them as soon as it
showed itself above water. The mother also pretended to be
wounded, and lay on the water every now and then with wings
spread out as if unable to fly. All along the Karakash Valley,
and also on the high table-land, wherever there was water overhung
by cliffs, there numbers of Brahminy Ducks with broods
of young ones were seen, and holes in these cliffs plastered over
with droppings were pointed out by the Kirghiz as the places
in which they had bred."
Mr. F. R. Mallet remarks in efistolA :—" As to the Brahminy
Ducks, I first observed them in Tibet north of the Niti Pass, at
an elevation of about 14,000 feet, on a shallow stagnant pond.
There were the old pair and eight young ones unable to fly. I
bagged all the latter, but the old parties did not see the fun of
it at all and kept out of range. This year I first saw a solitary
one in Spiti on a small shallow pond at about 13,000 feet.
" In neither of these cases was there much vegetation ; in
fact, almost none. Afterwards we saw perhaps two dozen old
and young in the streams flowing into the Indus in Ladakh.
These streams are rapid but smooth, and bordered by coarse
grassy plains ; from a mile to two miles wide, marshy near the
middle. They contain plenty of small fish, and the Ducks I
shot near the Niti had a very fishy taste.
" These streams are about 14,000 to 15,000 feet above the sea,
and there were lots of Geese on one of them.
"I never saw 'Brahminies' on the rough streams and torrents,
except north of the first high ranges of the Himalayas, at elevations
of 13,000 to 15,000 feet.
" They are not found in summer in the outer high ranges of
the Himalayas themselves, but in Tibet, Ladakh, &c."
At the Tso-mourari, the cliffs in which they breed, are far
from the water; yet the tiniest ducklings are to be seen swimming
about in the lake. Tristram notices the same thing in
the Eastern Altas. "At Bow Guizdem," he says, " I captured
some half dozen nestlings of various ages in the downy
state, some of them scarcely more than a day old, and yet the
only place where they could possibly have bred, and where we
had procured a nest three days previously, was a range of cliffs
more than twelve miles distant." Of course the old birds carry
the nestlings ; but how? The Ladakhis say in their feet, and
this may be so, but it would seem more likely that they carried