19 



TADORNA CASARCA. THE RUDDY SHIELDUCK. 



RUDDY GOOSE. GREY-HEADED GOOSE. 



Anas Casarca, Linn. Syst. Nat. III. Append. 224. 



Anas Casarka. Lath. Ind. Ornith. IL 844. 



Anas cana. Lath. Ind. Ornith. II. 840. 



Canard Kasarka. Anas rutila. Temm. Man. d'Om. II. 832. 



Ruddy or Casarka Shieldrake. Tadorna rutila. Selby, Illust. II. 293. 



Casarca rutila. Bonap. Comp. List, -56. 



Male twenty-three inches long, with the hill slightly re- 

 arcuate, destitute of basal protuberance, the wing with a 

 blunt tubercle, the tail of fourteen feathers ; the bill and feet 

 black; the head and upper half of the neck pale grey, the 

 latter tinged loith yellow ; a narroio collar of greenish-black ; 

 the rest of the neck, and the upper and loicer parts of the body, 

 light yellowish-red ; the hind part of the back and the tail 

 greenish-black ; the wing-coverts ivhite ; the primary quills 

 and coverts black, the secondary quills deep purplish green. 

 Female smaller, similarly coloured, but without grey on the 

 head, it being pale yellow, and the dark collar watiting, 



Male. — This beautiful bird is intermediate in form be- 

 tween the Egyptian Goose and the Shielduck, and in its mode 

 of colouring resembles both. Its legs being a little longer, 

 and its bill much less rearcuate, than those of the latter, it 

 might, perhaps, with propriety be referred to the same genus 

 as the former. But as many authors have placed it here, 

 and as I am not acquainted with the structure of its inferior 

 larynx, it may as well remain. It is one of those birds 

 which one might call a Duck, and another, with equal pro- 

 priety, a Goose. 



The bill is nearly as long as the head, much higher than 



