RUDDY SHIELDRAKE. 137 



logist,s in tlieir numerous modern divisions of the old genus 

 Anas^ I feel justified in adopting the genus Tadorna, insti- 

 tuted by Dr. Leach and Dr. Fleming in 1822, and revived 

 by Boie in 1826, for the reception of the Ruddy Shieldrake, 

 and the Common Shieldrake, which in some respects resemble 

 the true Geese, particularly in the circumstance of the females 

 being very nearly in plumage of the same colour as that of 

 the males, which is not the case in the true Ducks. The 

 similarity of the Shieldrakcs to the Egyptian Goose in several 

 points will be obvious, and they are frequently called Geese. 



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

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

 castle, which had formerly belonged to Marmaduke Tunstall, 

 Esq., this was believed to have been killed at Bryanstone, 

 near Blandford in Dorsetshire, the seat of Mr. Portman, in 

 the severe winter of 1776 ; the same frost of which season, as 

 Mr. Fox remarks, produced the Red-breasted Goose, also in 

 that collection, a bird of equal rarity, and, like the present 

 one, a native of the eastern parts of Europe. As the spe- 

 cimen is a female, there is no doubt that this is the Grey- 

 headed Duck of Brown''s Illustrations. Two other specimens 

 have, however, been killed since, and no question, therefore, 

 exists of the propriety of including it among our British 

 Birds. Mr. Selby mentions a specimen, novv in his own 

 collection, killed in the south of England, which was at first 

 lent to him by Mr. Gould to figure from ; and in January 

 1834, a specimen was shot at Iken near Orford, on the coast 

 of Suffolk, which passed into the possession of Mr. Manning, 

 of Woodbridge. 



This species has a very wide geographical range : Pennant 

 received a specimen from Denmark ; it is found in all the 

 southern parts of Russia and Siberia, and the eastern parts 

 of Europe generally ; it is sometimes obtained in Germany, 

 Hungary, and Austria; has been killed a few times in Italy, 



