836 . SHELD-DRAKE 



Ruddy Sheldrake of English authors — for it has several times strayed 

 to the British Islands, — and the "Brahminy Duck" of Anglo-Indians, 

 who find it resorting in winter, whether by pairs or by thousands, 

 to their inland waters. This species is of an almost uniform bay 

 colour all over, except the quill-feathers of the Avings and tail, and 

 (in the male) a ring round the neck, which are black, while the 

 wing-coverts are white and the speculum shines with green and 

 jDurple ; the bill and legs are dark-coloured.^ A species closely 

 resembling the last, but with a grey head, T. cana, inhabits South 

 Africa, while in some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and 

 in the northern parts of Australia, there is a fourth species, 

 T. radjah, which almost equals the true Sheldrake in its brightly- 

 contrasted plumage, but yet wants some of the lively colours the 

 latter displays — its head, for instance, being white instead of dark 

 green. Further to the southward in Australia occurs another 

 species of more sombre colours, the T. tadornoides ; and New 

 Zealand is the home of a sixth species, T. variegata, still less 

 distinguished by bright hues. In the last two the plumage of the 

 sexes differs not inconsiderably, but all are believed to have 

 essentially'' the same habits as the T. cornuta? 



It is not without a purpose that these different species are 

 here particularized. Sheldrakes will, if attention be paid to their 

 wants, breed freely in captivity, crossing if opportunity be given 

 them with other species, and an incident therewith connected pos- 

 sesses an importance hardly to be overrated by the philosophical 

 naturalist, though it seems not to have met with the attention it 

 deserves. In the Zoological Society's gardens in the spring of 

 1859 a male of T. cornuia mated with a female of T. cana, and, 

 as will have been inferred from what has been before stated, these 

 two species differ greatly in the colouring of their plumage. The 

 young of their union, however, presented an appearance wholly 

 unlike that of either parent, and an appearance which can hardly 

 be said, as has been said {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 442), to be "a 

 curious combination of the colours of the two." Both sexes of 

 this hybrid have been admirably portrayed by Mr. Wolf (torn. cit. 

 Aves, pi. 158); and, strange to say, when these figures are com- 

 pared with equally faithful portraits by the same master (op. cit. 



^ Jerdon {B. Lid. iii. p. 793) tells of a Hindu belief that once upon a time 

 two lovers were transformed into birds of this species, and that they or their 

 descendants are condemned to pass the night on opposite banks of a river, 

 whence they unceasingly call to one another : " Charkwa, shall I come ? " "No, 

 Charkwi." "Charkwi, shall I come?" "No, Charkwa." As to how, in these 

 cii'cumstances, the race is perpetuated the legend is silent. 



2 The Anas scutellata of the Indo-Malay countries is by several authorities 

 considered to be a Tadorna, but this view is denied by others, among them by- 

 Mr. Hume {Stray Feathers, viii. p. 158). 



