RUDDY SHIELDRAKE. 231 



Anas, I feel justified in adopting the genus Tadorna, in- 

 stituted by Dr. Leach and Dr. Fleming in 1822, and re- 

 vived by Boie in 1826, for the reception of the Ruddy 

 Shieldrake, and the Common Shieldrake, which in some 

 respects resemble the true Geese, particularly in the cir- 

 cumstance of the females being very nearly in plumage 

 of the same colour as that of the males, which is not the 

 case in the true Ducks. The similarity of the Shieldrakes 

 to the Egyptian Goose in several points will be obvious, 

 and they are frequently called Geese. 



G. T. Fox, Esq. of Durham, appears first to have no- 

 ticed this bird as British, from an example in the Museum 

 at Newcastle, which had formerly belonged to Marmaduke 

 Tunstall, Esq., this was believed to have been killed at 

 Bryanstone, near Blandford in Dorsetshire, the seat of 

 Mr. Portman, in the severe winter of 1776; the same 

 frost of which season, as Mr. Fox remarks, produced the 

 Red-breasted Goose, also in that collection, a bird of equal 

 rarity, and, like the present one, a native of the eastern 

 parts of Europe. As the specimen is a female, there is 

 no doubt that this is the Grey-headed Duck of Brown's 

 Illustrations. Two other specimens have, however, been 

 killed since, and no question, therefore, exists of the pro- 

 priety of including it among our British Birds. Mr. 

 Selby mentions a specimen, now in his own collection, 

 killed in the south of England, which was at first lent 

 to him by Mr. Gould to figure from ; and in January 

 1834, a specimen was shot at Iken near Orford, on the 

 coast of Suffolk, which passed into the possession of Mr. 

 Manning, of.Woodbridge. 



This species has a very wide geographical range : Pen- 

 nant received a specimen from Denmark ; it is found in all 

 the southern parts of Russia and Siberia, and the eastern 



