146 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



Tavo of these birds, however, both adult specimens, 

 were shot in Poole harbour by Mr. T. M. Pike, 

 January 24, 1882, and are deposited in Mr. E. Hart's 

 museum of British birds obtained in the neighbour- 

 hood of Christchurch. A careful examination of 

 these has left no doubt on my mind as to their specific 

 distinctness from the Mute Swan. 



RUDDY SHELDRAKE. Tadorna casarca, (L.) 



Yarrell, iv. p. 347; Dresser, vi. p. 461; Ibis List, p. 122; 

 Tadorna rutila, Harting, p. 157 ; SeehoJnn, iii. p. 524. 



The Euddy Sheldrake is generally regarded as an 

 accidental winter visitant to our shores ; but it is 

 so frequently kept, with other ornamental water-fowl, 

 in a state of semi-domestication, from which it some- 

 times escapes, that it is difficult to say whether the 

 examples met with in a state of liberty are really 

 wild birds or not. The first recorded British-killed 

 example of this bird, according to Selby (Illustr. 

 Brit. Orn., vol. ii. p. 293), was shot at Bryanston in 

 this county in the severe winter of 1776, and at the 

 date of his work (1833) was preserved in the New- 

 castle Museum. It does not appear how, or from 

 whom, he obtained its history; Fox in 1827 was 

 unable to pronounce it a British-killed specimen (cf. 

 Fox, Synop. Newcastle Mus., p. 142). I have not 

 heard of any other instance of its occurrence in 

 Dorsetshire. 



