24 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



many others were about. When famihes meet on the banks 

 the attending old birds usually fight, so that it is possible that 

 kidnapping may explain the phenomena. So far as is known, 

 only single broods are reared. 



The adult bird has a metallic green-black head, but the 

 plumage generally is white and black ; a white neck collar is 

 followed by a broad, rich chestnut band ; the back, coverts, 

 and flanks are white, the primaries and scapulars black. On 

 the wing is a chestnut and bronze-green speculum, and a black 

 band passes down the centre of the belly. The bill is scarlet, 

 the legs pink, the irides brown. Immature birds are browner, 

 have a good deal of white about the face, and their under parts 

 are mottled ; for over a year their bills are flesh-coloured. The 

 duckling is clad in white down with a sepia band from the 

 crown to the tail, crossed by a band at the shoulders and 

 another, less complete, to the thighs. The bill is lavender-grey, 

 the legs olive-grey, and the irides chestnut. Length, 25-26 ins. 

 Wing, 13 ins. Tarsus, 2*3 ins. 



Ruddy Sheld-Duck. Tador?ia casarca (Linn.). 



There is always a suspicion that any Ruddy Sheld-Duck 

 that is seen in Britain in an apparently wild state may have 

 wandered from private waters, for the bird is a favourite 

 ornamental fowl much addicted to wandering. On more than 

 one occasion, notably in the spring and summer of 1892, the 

 bird has spread northward and westward throughout Europe, 

 and numbers have invaded our islands. It is an occasional 

 but irregular visitor. From south Spain and north Africa, 

 through south-eastern Europe to west and central Asia the 

 bird breeds, and is common as a winter visitor to India and 

 Burma. During the irruption of 1892 it was met with in many 

 parts of Great Britain and Ireland in small flocks, and wanderers 

 even reached Iceland and Greenland. In June, 1909. one was 

 killed at Suliskerry, Orkney. 



