OP THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 345 



Family ANATID.E. Genus CASABCA. 



Subfamily ANATINJE. 



RUDDY SHELDRAKE. 



CAS AEG A RUTILA (Pallas). 



Anas casarca, Linn. Syst. Nat. iii. p. 224 (1768). 



Anas rutila, Pallas, Nov. Comm. Petrop. xiv. 1, p. 579, tab. 22, fig. 1 (1770). 



Tadorna casarca (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 19 (1852); Dresser, B. Bur. vi. p. 461, 



pi. 421, (1875) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4 iv. p. 347 (1885); Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. 



pt. xx. (1891) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 160 (1894). 



Tadorna rutila (Pallas), Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 524 (1885); Seebohm, Col. Fig. 

 Eggs Brit. B. p. 36, pi. 16 (1896). 



Casarca rutila (Pallas), Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 177 (1895). 

 Casarca casarca (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 263 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Buddy Sheldrake is a very 

 rare straggler to us on autumn migration and in winter ; but many of the records 

 of the occurrence of this species in the United Kingdom unquestionably relate to 

 birds escaped from the semi-captivity in which the bird is commonly found in our 

 Islands. As such I should feel disposed to class all the occurrences in summer. 

 Among the most trustworthy instances may be mentioned the following : 

 England : Dorset (one example), winter, 1776 ; Suffolk (one example), January, 

 1834; Kent (one example, shot from a party of four), September, 1884. Scot- 

 land : Orkneys (one example), October, 1831. Ireland : Co. Kerry (one example), 

 August, 1869 ; Shannon River (two examples), summer, 1886. Others are 

 reported to have been either seen or taken in Suffolk, Yorkshire, the " south of 

 England," Caithness, Forfarshire, Waterford, and Wicklow. The year 1892 was 

 remarkable for a large immigration of Ruddy Sheldrakes to the British Islands. 

 Flocks of from ten to twenty birds were observed, between the middle of June 

 and the middle of September, and many examples were obtained. (Conf. 

 Zoologist, 1892, pp. 392 398.) Foreign : Southern Palsearctic region ; Oriental 

 region in winter. It is a resident in the basin of the Mediterranean and Black 

 Seas, but not known to breed in Europe north of the Spanish Peninsula, the valley 

 of the Danube, and South Eussia ; whilst to the lakes and waters of North Africa 

 it is principally a winter visitor. To Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, the Baltic, West 

 Eussia, Germany, Denmark, and France it is, as to our Islands, an accidental visitor 

 only. In Europe the Buddy Sheldrake is mostly a resident species, but in Asia it 



