540 RARE BRITISH BIRDS 



species breed in Arctic N. America, but the former has a more southerly range than the 

 latter. [F. c. R. j.]] 



THE DUCKS 1 



[ORDER : Anseriformes. SUBORDER: Anseres. FAMILY: Anatidce. SUBFAMILY : Anatince] 



RUDDY-SHELDUCK [Casdrca ferruginea (Pallas); Tadorna casdrca (Linnaeus). French, 

 tadorne casarca ; German, Rost-Ente]. 



1. Description. May at once be distinguished by the almost uniform chesnut coloration 

 and the black feet and beak. The sexes are alike, except that the female lacks the black collar 

 round the neck. Adult male and female top of the head whitish buff, gradually merging into 

 the dark chesnut of the upper parts ; lower back whitish buff, freckled with black ; rump, upper 

 tail-coverts, and tail black; throat chesnut-buff; remainder of the under parts rich reddish 

 chesnut, excepting the middle of the belly, which is deep chesnut ; wing-coverts white ; secon- 

 daries black, glossed with dark bronze-green on the outer web, forming a speculum ; iris dark 

 brown ; bill, legs, and feet blackish, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This species breeds locally from the Mediterranean and Black Sea 

 regions and Western Asia through temperate Asia to China and Japan. It breeds in Africa, in 

 Marocco, Algeria, and possibly also Egypt ; in Europe from S. Spain (rarely) to Greece, 

 Macedonia, Eastern Bulgaria and Roumania, and Russia (Crimea, Caucasus, Transcaucasia, the 

 Volga to lat. 54 N., the Astrakhan, Samara, Saratof, Ufa, and Orenburg governments). In Asia 

 it nests from Palestine, Asia Minor, and Transcaspia through Persia, Afghanistan, the Pamirs, 

 S. Tibet, and the Himalayas, north to the Altai, Dauria, the Lena to 60 N., Mongolia, China, and 

 east to Japan. It migrates in winter to North Africa and Southern Asia, ranging south to the 

 White Nile in Africa and to the Persian Gulf, the plains of India, Ceylon, Burma, S. China, and 

 Formosa. Has occurred as a casual in most European countries, north to Norway, Sweden, 

 and Finland, and west to Denmark, the British Isles (in some numbers), Iceland, and Greenland. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



AMERICAN 6REENWINGED-TEAL [Ntttion cricca carolinense (Gmelin); Anas crecca 

 carolinensis Gmelin]. 



1. Description. Closely resembles the common-teal, from which, however, it is distin- 

 guished, in the case of the male, by the vertical band of white at the base of the neck, which 

 crosses the wrist of the wing when closed ; further, the white lines which run from the base of 

 the beak backwards, and above and below the post-ocular patch of green, are here only barely 

 traceable, while the cream-coloured stripe which runs along the outer border of the scapulars 

 in the common-teal is in this species wanting. The female is barely distinguishable from 

 the female common-teal, but in the greenwinged-teal the flank feathers are marked with 

 V-shaped loops, and the scapulars are more or less distinctly barred. Iris hazel ; beak blackish ; 

 legs and toes brownish, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This is the representative form of the teal in North America, where it is 

 widely distributed, breeding from the Arctic Circle (Hudson's Bay to Alaska and the Aleutian 

 Isles) south to the northern United States. In winter it visits the United States, ranging 

 south to Lower California, Mexico, Honduras, and the West Indies. As a casual it has occurred 

 in Hawaii, the Bermudas, Greenland, and two or three times in England (Devon, Yorks, and 

 perhaps Hants). [F. c. R. j.] 



1 Vol. iv. p. 189. 



