106 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



throughout North Africa including the Sahara. In Egypt, where it is common 

 on the lakes of the Delta and Fayoom. A straggler to Malta. Lord Lilford is 

 of opinion it breeds in the Papho districts of Cyprus (" The Ibis," 89, p. 345). It 

 is found in Palestine, and is very common generally throughout Asia Minor, where 

 Mr. Danford found it living in a semi-domesticated state near the villages. Very 

 common also in the Dobrudscha. In Transylvania it is rare. Not uncommon 

 about Astrakhan, where, however, T. cornuta is the most plentiful of the two. Is 

 a common resident in the low grounds and valleys of the Caucasus. Severtzoff 

 says it breeds generally throughout Turkestan, and found it very common in all 

 the high Pamir lakes where it breeds ; large flocks had assembled by the end of 

 August. It is both numerous on the Pamir and Aral-Caspian Steppe. Plentiful in 

 India, where it is known as the Brahminy Duck, thousands collecting on the jheels 

 in the winter. A resident also in Burniah, Central China, the Corea, and Japan. 

 Regarding its status in Great Britain, Mr. Howard Saunders has recorded 

 (" Yarrell's British Birds," ed. iv) about thirteen occurrences of the Ruddy Sheld- 

 Duck in Great Britain, between 1776 and 1869, and probably of these some were 

 escapes; between this and 1892 there have been isolated examples of this rare 

 Duck turning up in both England and Ireland ; and in the latter country, in 

 June and July, 1886, three separate flocks turned up north of Kiusale, Co. Cork. 

 It was, however, in 1892, that an event, second only in importance to the immi- 

 gration of the Sandgrouse, put all the ornithologists of the British Islands on the 

 alert, and that was the remarkable appearance of considerable numbers of Ruddy 

 Sheld-Ducks, in various parts of the country. Attempts were made to minimize 

 the importance of this special invasion, and attribute the occurrences to escaped 

 birds ; for it is well known that this species is kept amongst ornamental water- 

 fowl, and in places where it has full liberty. A consideration, however, of the 

 whole facts of the various occurrences, and the great area covered by the immi- 

 gration, can leave no doubt, that at least in this case, the birds were wild and of 

 foreign origin. I am, in writing this notice, greatly indebted to Mr. F. Menteith 

 Ogilvie, who has been at the trouble of collecting and tabulating the records from 

 different localities, and summing up the results of the enquiry in a very able 

 paper, which was printed in the " Zoologist " for 1892, " On the recent occurrence 

 in the British Islands of the Ruddy Sheldrake." From this it would appear that 

 altogether sixteen were obtained, between June 2oth and September i3th, namely, 

 eight in Ireland, six in England, and two in Scotland. The principal flocks seen 

 were twenty birds near Adara, Co. Donegal, seven in Co. Dublin, eight at Thorpe- 

 mere, in Suffolk, and five on Buckie Loch, mouth of the Findhorn, Elginshire- 

 total number about 40-50, and probably more. 



