836 SHELD-DRAKE 
Ruddy Sheldrake of English authors—for it has several times strayed 
to the British Islands,—and the “Brahminy Duck” of Anglo-Indians, 
who find it resorting in winter, whether by pairs or by thousands, 
to their inland waters. ‘This species is of an almost uniform bay 
colour all over, except the quill-feathers of the wings and tail, and 
(in the male) a ring round the neck, which are black, while the 
wing-coverts are white and the speculum shines with green and 
purple; the bill and legs are dark-coloured.! A species closely 
resembling the last, but with a grey head, 7. cana, inhabits South 
Africa, while in some of the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and 
in the northern parts of Australia, there is a fourth species, 
T. radjah, which almost equals the true Sheldrake in its brightly- 
contrasted plumage, but yet wants some of the lively colours the 
latter displays—its head, for instance, being white instead of dark 
green. Further to the southward in Australia occurs another 
species of more sombre colours, the TY. tadornoides; and New 
Zealand is the home of a sixth species, 7. variegata, still less 
distinguished by bright hues. In the last two the plumage of the 
sexes differs not inconsiderably, but all are believed to have 
essentiaily the same habits as the 7. cornuta.? 
It is not without a purpose that these different species are 
here particularized. Sheldrakes will, if attention be paid to their 
wants, breed freely in captivity, crossing if opportunity be given 
them with other species, and an incident therewith connected pos- 
sesses an Importance hardly to be overrated by the philosophical 
naturalist, though it seems not to have met with the attention it 
deserves. In the Zoological Society’s gardens in the spring of 
1859 a male of 7. cornuta mated with a female of 7. cana, and, 
as will have been inferred from what has been before stated, these 
two species differ greatly in the colouring of their plumage. The 
young of their union, however, presented an appearance wholly 
unlike that of either parent, and an appearance which can hardly 
be said, as has been said (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 442), to be “a 
curious combination of the colours of the two.” Both sexes of 
this hybrid have been admirably portrayed by Mr. Wolf (tom. cit. 
Aves, pl. 158); and, strange to say, when these figures are com- 
pared with equally faithful portraits by the same master (op. cit. 
1 Jerdon (BL. Ind. iii. p. 793) tells of a Hindu belief that once upon a time 
two lovers were transformed into birds of this species, and that they or their 
descendants are condemned to pass the night on opposite banks of a river, 
whence they unceasingly call to one another: ‘‘ Charkwa, shall I come?” ‘‘No, 
Charkwi.” ‘‘Charkwi, shall l come?” ‘‘No, Charkwa.’”’ As to how, in these 
circumstances, the race is perpetuated the legend is silent. 
? The Anas scutellata of the Indo-Malay countries is by several authorities 
considered to be a Tadorna, but this view is denied by others, among them by 
Mr. Hume (Stray Feathers, viii. p. 158). 
