348 ANATID^. 



particularly in the circumstance of the females being very 

 nearly of the same colour as the males in plumage, which 

 is not the case in the true Ducks. In several points 

 the Ruddy Sheld-Duck resembles the Egyptian Goose, with 

 which it has been known to breed ; and it has even been 

 called the Ruddy Goose.* 



Mr. G. T. Fox, of Durham, appears to have first noticed 

 this bird as British, from an example in the Museum at 

 Newcastle, which had belonged to Marmaduke Tunstall, 

 and was believed to have been killed at Bryanstone, near 

 Blandford, in Dorsetshire, in the severe winter of 1776. 

 Selby mentions a specimen in his own collection, killed in 

 the south of England, which was at first lent to him by 

 Gould to figure from. In January, 1834, a specimen was 

 shot at Iken near Orford, Suffolk, which passed into the 

 possession of Mr. Manning, of Woodbridge ; and, from 

 the description given, Mr. Hele believes in the reported 

 occurrence of another in that county in 1864. Mr. W. 

 Eagle Clarke was informed by Mr. H. B. Hewetson of one 

 killed near Cottingham, in Yorkshire, some years ago. 

 In two instances, according to Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 birds were shot in Norfolk which were subsequently proved 

 to have escaped from semi-domestication, and it is extremely 

 probable that this has been the case with some of the other 

 occurrences on record. Mr. Thomas Parkin has recorded 

 one shot in Romney Marsh, Kent, on the 8th September last 

 (Zool. 1884, p. 469). 



In Scotland a Ruddy Sheld-Duck is stated by Messrs. 

 Baikie and Heddle to have been killed at Sanday, in Orkney, 

 in October 1831 ; and, according to Mr. R. Gray, one shot 

 in Caithness-shire is still preserved in the collection which 

 belonged to the late Mr. Sinclair of Wick. In Ireland, as 

 stated by Thompson, one formerly in the Warren collection, 



* " ' Shekl, flecked, party-coloured;' (Coles, 1684.) M. E. sheld is a shield ; 

 and the allusion is to the ornamentation of shields." Skeat's Etym. Diet. p. 431. 

 Willughby, speaking of the next species by the name of ' Sheldrake,' says that it 

 is so called because it is parti-coloured ; and it may be borne in mind that the 

 term is often applied to the Red-breasted Merganser, Goosander, and other birds 

 of pied plumage. Cf. .T. H. Gurney, jun., Zool. s.s. p. 4846. 



