CASARCA FERRUGINKA 141 



Distribution. — The Brahminy is not a bird of very northern lati- 

 tudes, even during the Ijreeding-season. In summer it is found in 

 Spain, though in small numbers only, throughout Southern Europe 

 and Northern Africa, and thence through Asia Minor, Turkestan, 

 Afghanistan, and extreme Northern India at altitudes over 10,000 feet, 

 through China in the north, and Japan. It has been recorded from 

 nearly all North European countries, including Great Britain, but 

 nowhere as anything but rare. In 1S92, Messrs. Pearson recorded it 

 from Iceland in the ' Ibis ' for 1895, p. '247, and in the same year it 

 was recorded as having been seen in 1892 even further north than 

 this, viz., in the Upernivik district of Western Greenland, by Dr. Van 

 Hoffen, who was naturalist to the Drygalski Expedition in 1892-93. 



In winter it resorts to the plains of India, Northern Burma, 

 South China and Japan, and Formosa. In India the only places from 

 which it has not been recorded are such as do not afford suffi- 

 cient water, and it is practically unknown in the waterless tracts of 

 portions of Sind and Rajputana. From as far south as Ceylon it 

 is noted as not uncommon. Legge, in the appendix to the ' Birds 

 of Ceylon," says : — 



"This Sheldrake can no longer be relegated to the doubtful or 

 nnprocirred species in the Ceylon lists. Mr. G. Simpson, of the 

 Indian Telegraph Department, has lately sent a portion of the skin 

 of a male shot by him in the Jaffna district to Mr. Parker for 

 identification. He likewise furnishes a description of the bird, which 

 has been forwarded to me, and there is no doubt about the matter. 

 The wing of the example in question measures 14'75 inches. Mr. 

 Simpson says they are not uncommon in the cool season on the 

 Jaffna Lake near Pooneryn, and on the Delft, Palverainkadoo and 

 Mullaittivu lagoons. They are, he finds, very wary, flying high 

 wlien disturbed, and uttering a note like couk, conic." 



To Southern Burma it is a very rare straggler, and I can find 

 none but anonymous records of its occurrence there, but in Aracan, 

 Hopwood says, it is found in enormous numbers. 



Gates observes (,in he. cit.) : — 



'■ The Brahminy Duck is a visitor to the Province from October 

 to March. It is very abundant in the large rivers of Pegu ; but 

 Mr. Davidson did not observe it in Tennasserim." 



Like Mr. Inglis, I have found the Ruddy Sheldrake a rare bird 



