ANATIDÆ.
T H E RU D D Y SH IE LD RA K E .
Anas rutila,
Tadorna ,,
Anas
Ruddy Goose, ~ S Bewick, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 330.
,-, Shieldrake, Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 229.
,, », Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 293.
,, ,, Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. xix. I
Canard Kasarka, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. t. ii. p, 832.
' ,, , pt. iv. p. 531.
Tadorna. Generic Characters.—Beak about the length of the head, higher
than broad at the base, depressed or concave in the middle; breadth nearly
equal throughout; under mandible much narrower than the'upper, the latter
grooved near the tip ; nail curved downwards forming a hook j both mandibles
furnished with strong transverse lamellm. Nasal groove near the base of the
beak; nostrils oval, lateral, pervious. 'Eegs of moderate length ; the tibiae
naked for a short space above the tarsal joint; toes three in front, entirely
webbed ; one behind free, without any pendent membrane or lobe. W ings of
moderate length, tuberculated, pointed, the second ^fl-feather the longest.
The sexes alike in plumage, or very nearly.
W ithout intending to follow some systematic ornitholo-
EUDDY SHIELDRAKE.
legists in tlieir numerous modern divisions of the old genus
Ainasi I feel justified in adopting the genus Tadorna, instituted
by Dr. Leach and Dr. Fleming in 1822, and revived
by Boié in 1826, for the reception of the Ruddy Shieldrake,
and the Common Shieldrake, which in some respects resemble
the true Geese, particularly in the circumstance of the females
being very nearly in plumage of the same colour as that of
th e ‘mâles,; which is not the case in the ;true Ducks. The
similarity of the Shieldrakes to the Egyptian Goose in several
points ’will be obvious, and they are frequently called Geese.
?-G. T. Fox, Esq. of Durham,- appears first to have noticed
this bird as British, from an example in the Museum at Newcastle,
which had formerly belonged to Marmaduke Tunstall,
Esq.^ fhis was believed to have been killed at Bryanstone,
near Blandford in Dorsetshire, the seat of Mr. Portman, in
the severe winter of 1*776 ; the same frost of which season, as
Mr. Fox remarks, produced the Red-breasted Goose, also in
that collection, a bird of equal rarity, and, like the present
one, a native of the eastern parts of Europe» As the specimen
is a female, there is no doubt that this is the Greyheaded
Duck of Brown’s Illustrations. Two other specimens
have, however, been killed since, and no question, therefore,
exists of the propriety of including it among our British
Birds. : Mr. Selby mentions a specimen, now in his own
collection, killed in the -south of England, which was at first
lent to him by Mr. Gould to figure from ; and in January
1884, a specimen was shot at Iken neaE Orford, on the coast
of Suffolk, which passed into, the possession of Mr. Manning,
of Woodbridge.
This species has a very wide geographical range : Pennant
received a specimen from Denmark ; it is found in all the
southern parts of Russia and Siberia, and the eastern parts
of Europe generally ; it is sometimes obtained in Germany,
Hungary, and Austria; has been killed a few times in Italy,