OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 341 



Family ANATID^. Genus Tadoena. 



Subfamily Anatinm. 



COMMON SHELDRAKE. 



TADOENA CORNUTA— iS. G. Gmelin). 



Plate XXXIV. 



Anas tadorna, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 195 (1766). 



Tadorna vulpanser, Fleming; Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 22 (1852). 



Tadorna cornuta (S. G. Gmelin), Dresser, B. Bur. vi. p. 451, pi. 420 (1878); Yarrell, 

 Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 362 (1885) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 520 (1885) ; Lilford, 

 Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxvii. (1893) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 225 (1893) ; 

 Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 171 (1895) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. 

 B. p. 36, pi. 16 (1896). 



Tadorna Tadorna (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. ii. p. 258 (1896). 



Geographical distribution.— £nfe^ .- The Common Sheldrake is a 

 resident in and widely dispersed throughout the British Islands. It breeds in 

 all suitable places on the east and west coasts of England, but is very much more 

 local in the south during the breeding season. It breeds in many localities on 

 the east of Scotland, notably in the Forth, and the same remarks apply to the 

 west, including the Hebrides. It also breeds sparingly and locally round the 

 Irish coasts, but is most abundant during winter, as it also is on the eastern coast 

 line of Great Britain. Foreign : North-western and southern Palsearctic region ; 

 northern Oriental region in winter. It breeds throughout Europe in all suitable 

 localities, but in the basin of the Mediterranean, where it nests sparingly on both 

 shores, it is best known as a winter visitor, whilst in the north it does not 

 extend beyond lat. 69° in Norway, lat. 60° in the Baltic, and lat. 56° in the Urals. 

 In Asia it does not appear to breed north of lat. 52° in the west, and the valley 

 of the Amoor in the east. The birds breeding in the northern portions of this 

 range, including Turkestan and Mongolia, are migratory, but in the basin of the 

 Black and Caspian Seas they are resident, as they also appear to be in Japan. 

 To the coasts of China and to India, as far south as the Tropic of Cancer, it is a 

 winter visitor. A single example has been recorded from the Faroes. 



Allied forms. — Tadorna radjah, an inhabitant of the Moluccas, Papuan 

 Islands, and Australia. It differs from the Common Sheldrake in having no knob 

 at the base of the bill and in having the head and neck white, the tail black. 



