534 BRITISH BIRDS. 



TADORNA RUTILA. 



RUDDY SHELDRAKE. 



(PLATE 66.) 



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



Anas rutila, Pall. Nov. Com. Petrop. xiv. p. 579 (1770) ; et auctorum plurimorum 

 Temminck, Bewick, (Jenyns), (Selby), (Gould), ^(Jerdon), (Hume), (Blyth), 

 (Scully), (David fy Oustalet), (Oates), (Yarrell), (Salvadori), &c. 



Anser casarca (Linn.), Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxiii. p. 341 (1818). 



Tadorna rutila (Pall.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 564. 



Casarca rutila (Pall.), Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur, Sf N. Amer. p. 56 (1838). 



Vulpanser rutila (Pall.), Keys. $ Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. Ixxxiv (1840). 



Tadorna casarca (Linn.), Macgill. Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 163 (1842). 



The Ruddy Sheldrake is a very rare straggler to the British Islands, and 

 it is not improbable that of the few recorded instances of its occurrence, 

 several if not all were those of escaped birds, as it is one that is kept very 

 commonly on ornamental waters. The first recorded British example was 

 shot at Bryanstone, near Blandford in Dorsetshire, in the severe winter 

 of 1776, and is now preserved in the Newcastle Museum (Fox, Synops. 

 Newcastle Mus. p. 142). A second is said to have been killed previous to 



1833 in the south of England, but no date or exact locality is given (Selby, 

 Brit. Orn. ii. p. 294). Another is recorded as having occurred at Sanday 

 in the Orkneys, in October 1831 (Baikie and Heddle, Hist. Nat. Orcadensis, 

 p. 74). A fourth was shot at Iken, near Orford in Suffolk, in January 



1834 (Clarke, London's Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. p. 151), and a fifth on 

 the Murrough of Wicklow on the 7th July, 1847 (Thompson, Ann. 

 Nat. Hist. xx. p. 171). In 1864 one was seen near Blackstakes in 

 Suffolk, in company with some Common Sheldrakes (Hele, 'Notes about 

 Aldeburgh/ p. 150) ; and on the 17th of August, 1869, another was shot 

 near Tralee, co. Kerry (Blake Knox, 'Zoologist/ 1870, p. 2105). Several 

 other examples of the Ruddy Sheldrake have been recorded, but no dates 

 are given : one is said to have been shot at Collingham in Yorkshire, 

 " some years ago " (Clarke and Roebuck, ' Handbook Vert. Fauna Yorks.' 

 p. 55) ; and another at Caithness (Wilson, ' Voyage round Scotland/ ii. 

 p. 180). Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey mentions one shot in the county of 

 Waterford, and another " Irish specimen/' of which no locality is given, is 

 preserved in the museum of Trinity College ('Fowler in Ireland/ p. 66). 



The European range of the Ruddy Sheldrake does not extend nearly so 

 far north as that of the Common Sheldrake ; but in Asia, though its winter- 

 range extends further to the south, it is said to breed as far north as its 



