is likewise to Northern Persia and Asia Minor. In Europe it
has occurred in most countries, ranging as far north as the
Faroes, and in Scandinavia as the 700 North Latitude ; but it does
not get nearly so far north in Russia. It used to be extremely
common on the Coasts of the British Isles, but has been exterminated
in many places, and only exists, in greatly diminished
numbers, in others.
Again in the north of Africa it is found, but not crossing
southwards of the Tropic of Cancer.
As a whole it is essentially a bird of the Temperate Zone of
the Old World ; nowhere approaching the Arctic Circle, except
at the extreme west of its range, and nowhere straggling into the
tropics except in the easternmost portions of this.
IN EUROPE pre-eminently a sea coast bird, it is only in Sind,
Cutch, and Kathiawar that it is met with, so far as I know,
about our Indian Coasts.* This may be, partly, because most
of our coast line is too far south for it, and partly because most
of what does occur within its range is too muddy. It likes a
sandy coast, or at any rate clean soil and not mud. I have
never known of its occurrence in any of our rivers, grand
reaches of fine sands as these afford, but only in large lakes
and broads, and always about those portions where the shores
were most sandy, or at any rate, free from mud.
They seem to arrive late and leave pretty early. I have no
record of ever seeing one before about the middle of November,
or after the middle of April, at which latter period I once saw
one in the Calcutta Bazar.
Like the Brahminies they are essentially shore birds ; until
disturbed, I never once saw one swimming about in the open
water. They are either prowling about on the land near to the
water's edge, or else paddling in the shallows close to this latter.
With us they are always seen in pairs or in small parties of
three to five in number ; never in considerable sized flocks.
They walk with more ease than the Mallard, more like the
Barred-headed Goose, but less pompously, and with quicker
steps. They rise and fly more like other Ducks, with less noise
and more rapid beats of the wing than either the Bar-head or
Brahminy. As for swimming, I have seen them so seldom out
of even their depths that I really can say nothing. Naturally
I have never seen them dive, though doubtless, if wounded, they
would dive, as I have seen them when feeding in shallow water,
keeping their heads under, and only the tail halves of their
bodies above water, quite as long at a stretch as any of the true
Ducks.
All those that I have examined had fed chiefly on land and
water shells, and fresh water shrimps of kinds, but the stomachs,
* It may occur on the Chittngong Coasts, parts of which are hard and sandy.
which I noted as very strong and muscular, also contained some
green vegetable matter and a quantity of coarse sand.
" Their note," says Yarrell, " is a shrill whistle." According to
Dresser, " the call note of the male is a deep korr, korr, but the
female utters a loud quacking sound like that of many other
Ducks. The " korr" note is probably only uttered during the
breeding season ; I have never heard it. With us both sexes,
when undisturbed, emit a harsh quack, recognizably distinct
from that of all other Ducks with which I am acquainted, and
both sexes, most commonly when suddenly surprised, give forth a
note of alarm, which might perhaps be called a whistle.
These birds are, as a rule, so very shy in India that it is
difficult to learn anything of their habits, and I never once had
any opportunity of watching them at close quarters. The only
point I noticed was, that on two occasions I saw birds washing
and sluicing themselves with an energy and persistence that I
have rarely seen equalled in any other species. Standing in water
five or six inches deep, the bird kept ducking under from bill to
tail, fluffing up all the body feathers, and vibrating its half
opened wings for such a time that, on the first occasion, I
thought something must be wrong. But no sooner had I put
down the glasses, and commenced working up cautiously in a
grey gun punt, (in which almost any other Fowl would have
allowed me to approach within sixty or seventy yards, against
the wind, as I then was,) than the bather pulled himself into
shape in an instant, gave a couple of waves of his pointed
wings, sounded a call to attention to his mate, (hidden from me
by some rushes,) and away went the pair, straight off, to Mongolia
for all I know, and were out of sight in five minutes. For
a fortnight afterwards, I had a man watching the place, but they
never returned, and by that time the hot weather was on us.
No bird is more conspicuous amongst Wild Fowl than the
Shelldrake, the brilliant whiteness of so much of its plumage
catching the eye at long distances, so that it is never likely to
be overlooked, and yet every Indian fowler that I have consulted
agrees with me that they have very rarely met with it. It
is widely spread ; you may meet with it any year, anywhere
within the limits above indicated, but it visits us in very small
numbers and very irregularly.
The real secret of this is, I fancy, that they are by preference
sea-coast birds ; and that though they will halt for a day or so
here and there, they do not willingly make a winter home on our
fresh-water broads. There are just a few very large pieces of
water like the Manchar Lake in Sind, or the Najjafgarh Jhfl
in the old predrainage days, where a few pairs would spend the
whole winter, but, as a rule, they are only to be seen for a day or
two at a time at any jhfl, leaving the place for good, for
that season at any rate, after a gun has once been fired there.
They are at once perhaps the most showily plumaged and
S