CASARCA RUTILA. 115 



Bill and feet black, irides rich brown. 



" Length 24-5 to 27'0 inches, expanse 48-0 to 52-5, wing 14-25 to lo-o, tail 

 from vent 5-4 to 6-15, tarsus 2*3 to 2*7, bill from gape 2-2 to 2'4, AVeight 3 lbs. 

 to 4 lbs. 4 ozs." (Hume.) 



In the cold weatlier the majority of the drakes have their white wing-coverts 

 much suffused with rufous. Hume had specimens practically having their wing- 

 coverts and lower plumage concolorous. 



Adult female. — Differs in being smaller, and in having the head paler and 

 " in having (at any rate, during the cold season) the whole anterior portion of 

 the head white '*' (Hume). The black collar is never assumed. 



" Length 21'7o to 24*0 inches, expanse 42-5 to 47"75, wing 12-36 to 14-0, 

 tail from vent 5-06 to 6-0, tarsus 2-12 to 2-4, bill from gape 2-0 to 2-3. Weight 

 2 lbs. 1 oz. to 3 lbs. 5 ozs." (Hume.) 



Young of the first season. — Generally like the female but rather duller, 

 the scapulars and upper part verraiculated brown and pale rufous ; the inner 

 secondaries brown, more or less vermiculated with reddish-buff, more especially 

 on the inner web ; tail with narrow obsolete bars of rufous and distinctly tipped 

 with the same. 



In India many birds are met with in their transition-stage between this and 

 the fully adult plumage. I have now a fine young male before me with adult 

 scapulars, but the back shows tine vermiculations of brown, the tail and inner 

 secondaries are those of the young bird, and the whole lower iilumage has the 

 feathers very faintly and indistinctly tipped paler. 



In this bird the feet are purplish-black, irides bright brown, and bill slaty- 

 black. 



" A nestling brought from Tso-mourari is mostly white, marked on the upper 

 surface with blackish-brown, and with here and there a fulvous tinge." (Hume.) 



The Brahniiny is not a bird of very northern latitudes, even during the 

 breeding-season. In summer it is found in Spain, though in small 

 numbers only, throughout Southern Europe and Xorthern Africa, and 

 thence through Asia Minor, Turkestan, Afghanistan, and extreme i^orthern 

 India at altitudes over 10,000 feet, through China in the north, and Japan. 

 It has been recorded from nearly all North European countries, including 

 Great Britain, but nowhere as anything but rare. In 1892 Messrs. Pearson 

 recorded it from Iceland in the ' Ibis ' for 1895, p. 247, and the same year 

 it was recorded as having been seen in 1892 even further north than this, 

 viz. in the Upernivik district of Western Greenland, by Dr. Van Hoffen, 

 who was naturalist to the Drygalski expedition in 1892-93. 



In winter it resorts to the plains of India, Northern Burmah, South 

 China, and Japan and Formosa. In India the only places from which it 

 has not been recorded are such as do not afford sufficient water, and they 

 are practically unknown in the waterless tracts of portions of Sind and 



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