602 TADORNA 



east to Japan, north to Mongolia, Manchuria, and southern 

 Siberia, south to northern India and China in winter. 



In general habits it resembles the Wild Duck a good deal, 

 but is chiefly a coast bird, and is usually shy and wary. The 

 call-note of the male is a deep korr, Tcorr, but the note of the 

 female is a quack. It feeds on vegetable matter, small crusta- 

 ceans, and worms. It breeds in May in holes in the ground, 

 usually rabbit-burrows, and deposits 7 to 12, sometimes as many 

 as 16 eggs, which are well bedded in down, and are yellowish 

 or ivory white, smooth in grain and measure about 27 by 1*8. 



840. RUDDY SHELDRAKE. 

 TADORNA CASARCA. 



Tadorna casarca (Linn.), Syst. Nat. iii. App. p. 224 (1768) ; Dresser, vi. 

 p. 461, pi. 421 ; Saunders, p. 421 ; Lilford, vii. p. 81, pi. 31 ; 

 T. rutila, Pall. Nov. Comm. Petrop. xiv. p. 579, Taf. 22, fig. 1 ; 

 Naum. xi. p. 564, Taf. 299 ; Gould, B. of E. v. pi. 358 ; (id.), B. of 

 Gt. Brit. v. pi. 12 ; Seebohm, B. Jap. Emp. p. 241 ; (Blanf.), 

 F. Brit. Ind. Birds, iv. p. 428 ; (Salvadori), Cat. B. Br. Mns. xxvii. 

 p. 117 ; (Tacz.), F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 1121. 



Tadorne casarca, French ; Pato tarro, Span. ; Rostente, 

 German ; Turpan, Russ. ; Kermesi-Erdek, Turk. ; Bou-ha, Moor. ; 

 Wuz Abu-Far oa, Arab. ; ChaJcwa $ , Cha'kwi , Hindu. ; 



< ad. (S. Russia). Head creamy yellow, becoming yellowish red on 

 the neck, which is encircled below by a black ring ; lower neck, back, 

 breast, and under parts rich fox-red, paler on the flanks and scapulars ; 

 quills, tail, and tail-coverts black ; rump yellowish red vermiculate.d with 

 black ; secondaries glossed with green and purple on the outer web ; inner 

 secondaries yellowish red tinged with ashy grey on the inner webs ; wing- 

 eoverts white ; bill and legs blackish ; iris brown. Culmen 1'75, wing 14*0, 

 tail 5*5, tarsus 2'5 inch. The female lacks the black collar and is whiter 

 on the head, and the young bird resembles the female but is duller, the 

 inner secondaries and scapulars are brown marked with yellowish red, and 

 the white on the wing coverts is soiled with grey. 



Hal>. Southern and south-eastern Europe, rare in the west ; 

 of accidental occurrence in Britain, Sweden, Denmark, and 

 Germany, etc ; North Africa ; Asia east through central Asia, 

 Tibet, Mongolia, and Manchuria, to China, Corea, and Japan, 

 north to Lake Baikal, south in winter to India, Burma, and 

 Formosa. 



In habits it is said to resemble the Geese more than the true 

 Ducks, walks with ease like these, and grazes in the cornfields 



