on the plains ; at others, in clefts of precipitous rocks, as in
Algeria and in Palestine, where Canon Tristram found nests
amongst those of Griffon Vultures, &c. In Southern Russia
hollow trees are said to be selected, the male bird keeping
watch on a branch while the female is sitting; felled hollow
logs, and deserted nests of birds of prey are also utilized ;
and, according to Col. Prjevalsky, the female sometimes lays
her eggs in the fireplaces of villages abandoned by the
Mongols, becoming almost black with soot while sitting.
The eggs, from nine to sixteen in number, are laid on the
down plucked from the breast of the bird; smooth, creamy-
white in colour, measuring about 2’6 by 1‘8 in. The male
does not share the task of incubation, but afterwards he is
very assiduous in his attentions to the young. The female
is said to carry the nestlings to the water.
The call-note, when uttered on the wing, is described by
Pallas as resembling a clarionet-like a-oung, whence the
name of Aangir given to the bird by the Mongols, who hold
it sacred ; and Ahngoot, by the natives of the vicinity of
Lake Van, in Armenia. According to a Hindoo legend, as
given by Jerdon, the birds represent two lovers talking to
each other across a stream at night—“ Chakwa, shall I
come? No, Chakwi. Chakwi, shall I come ? No, Chakwa.”
In confinement the note is a sort of kape or ka, several
times repeated. In its manner of walking this species resembles
a Goose, and it feeds in a similar manner, grazing
in the fields of young corn, and picking up seeds of grass,
grain, &c. In summer the birds go in pairs, but at other
times they are gregarious, and Jerdon says that on the
Chilka Lake he has seen thousands in one flock in April.
Mr. P. L. Sclater says that the Zoological Society received
a pair from Egypt in 1850, which bred for the first time in
1859, and from that year to 1874 inclusive, eleven broods
were hatched in the months of May and June (P. Z. S.
1880, p. 512).
In the adult male in spring the beak is lead-colour; the
irides yellowish-brown ; head, cheeks, and chin, buff-colour,
darkening to an orange-brown at the lower part of the neck;
towards the bottom of the neck a ring of black, which is
absent from autumn to spring; the back, breast, and all the
under surface of the body, the same rich orange-brown; the
point of the wing, and the wing-coverts, pale bufify-white;
wing-primaries lead-grey, almost black; secondaries rather
lighter in colour, the outer webs, short of the end, forming
a brilliant bronze-green speculum; rump and tail-feathers
lead-colour; legs, toes, and their membranes, blackish. The
whole length is twenty-five or twenty-six inches; wing, from
the carpal joint to the tip, about fourteen and a half inches.
The female is rather smaller; has a whitish forehead,
and no black collar; this latter ornament being also absent
in the young male. The young of the year are like the
female, but rather duller in colour ; the inner secondaries
and scapulars are brown, marked with rufous ; and the wing-
coverts are greyish-white.
A nestling from the Volga, in the collection of Mr. E.
Bidwell, is dull white on the forehead, cheeks, and entire
under-parts; the crown of the head to the eye, nape, and
back, brown, with broad streaks of white on the inner side
of each pinion, r,nd on each side of the centre of the rump.