AXATID.B 



409 



THE RUDDY SHELD-DUCK. 

 Tauorna casarca (I.inn^eus). 



The Ruddy Sheld-Duck is a native of warm dry countries, and 

 was first recorded as British from a specimen now in the Newcastle 

 Museum, killed near Blandford in Dorsetshire during the severe 

 winter of 1776. The species was long ago introduced on many of 

 our ornamental waters, and birds shot in Norfolk, Northamptonshire 

 and other places are either known, or are strongly suspected, to have 

 escaped from semi-captivity ; some records, too, are unworthy of cre- 

 dence. There can be no doubt, however, that an example was shot 

 from a party of four in Romney Marsh, Kent, on September Sth 

 1884 ; while in Ireland one (in the Dublin Museum) was obtained in 

 CO. Wicklow on July 7th 1847, a young male in co. Kerry on August 

 17th 1869, another in co. Waterford in March 1871, and two were 

 procured on the Shannon in the summer of 1886. As regards 

 Scotland, occurrences have been noted in Caithness and Perthshire ; 

 and a bird which proved to have escaped from Auchencairn 

 House, Kircudbrightshire, was shot, as Mr. R. Service informs me, 

 on August 3rd 1888. 



Solitary wanderers have been recorded from Sweden, Bornholm 

 in the Baltic, and Lake Ladoga ; but with these exceptions the 

 Kuddy Sheld Duck is almost unknown to the north of the Alps and 

 the Cnrpathians. Individuals have been obtained near Toulouse in 



