530 TADORNA CORNUTA.—T. CASARCA. 
[§ 5489. Zico.—Waren Bay, Northumberland, June, 1856. 
Obtained by us when at Bamborough of Henry Macdonald. ] 
| § 5490. Zwo.—Dornoch, Sutherland, 30 Moy, 1874. From 
Mr. Norgate. 
Received by Mr. Norgate from one Douglas MacKenzie. ] 
TADORNA CASARCA (Linneus). 
RUDDY SHELD-DRAKE. 
§ 5491. One.—Djendeli, 12 May, 1857. From Mr. Tristram’s 
Collection. 
Bought at Mr. Stevens’s rooms, being Lot 271 of the sale, 
9 February, 1858. Mr. Tristram’s notes are to the effect that it was 
one of four eggs, sat on for about a week, in a cliff at the south side 
of Ain Djendeli, in a hole of the rock about twenty feet from the 
ground. The nest was formed entirely of the down of the parent 
bird, which sat in the nest till Mohammed mounted the rock. 
There was a Booted Eagle sitting close by, and Black Kites hovering 
near. Mr. Simpson told me that he and his friends [Messrs. 
Tristram and Salvin] watched this bird regularly on to its nest, and 
it was impossible to have an egg better identified. It was at some 
height in a cliff, miles away from water, and had Birds-of-prey 
breeding close to it. 
[Mr. Salvin (Ibis, 1859, p. 362) thus writes of this nest :—‘ One nest only 
rewarded our labours. The rarity of the eggs is hardly so surprising, when 
the situation chosen by this bird for its nest is considered. It selects a hole 
or erevice of a cliff for its breeding place, and associates with the Raven, 
Black Kite, and Egyptian Vulture during the period of the reproduction of 
its young. Almost immediately on encamping at Ain Djendeli we used daily 
to see a pair of Ruddy Shieldrakes pass over our tents, their direction always 
being backwards and forwards between the cliffs to the south of us and the 
small marsh between us and the lake. After careful investigation, the nest 
was discovered to be ina hole in the face of a rock, which required all the 
skill of Mohamed and all our appliances of ropes, &e., to reach. The result 
was four hard-set eggs, which are now in the collections of Messrs. Tristram, 
Simpson, J. Wolley, and myself. Though the Arabs were aware of the 
habits of this bird, we did not succeed in obtaining any more eggs.”’] 
