NEW ZEALAND or PARADISE SHELDRAKE 



CAS ARC A VARIEGATA (Gmelin) 



(Plate 18) 



Synonymy 

 Anas variegata Gmelin, Linne's Systema Naturae, ed. 13, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 505, 1788. 

 Casarca variegata G. R. Gray in Dieffenbach's Travels in New Zealand, vol. 2, app., 



p. 198, 1843. 

 Tadorna variegata Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p. 191, pi. 19. 



Vernacular Names 



English: German: 



Variegated Sheldrake Schwarze Kasarka 



Paradise Duck Schwarze Fuchsgans 



New Zealand Sheldrake Maoris : 



Black Sheldrake Putangitangi 



French: Putakitaki 



Casarka de Paradis Putangi (wail of death) 



DESCRIPTION 



Adult Male: Head and neck black with a metallic gloss, mantle and breast dark brown, very finely 

 vermiculated with buff. Back, scapulars, and flanks black, with fine, wavy irregular lines and points 

 of a light gray. Upper tail-coverts and tail black, middle of abdomen chestnut brown, under tail- 

 coverts chestnut. Wing-coverts white, secondaries metallic green on outer web, primaries black. 

 Tertials chestnut on outer web, gray on inner web. 



Bill lead black; legs grayish black; iris black (Buller). 



Wing 365-370 mm.; bill 42-45; tarsus 65-70 



Adult Female: Head and upper neck pure white; lower neck, mantle, scapulars, back, breast and 

 under parts chestnut, freckled and barred with black and gray lines. Wing and tail as in male. 

 Wing 325-330 mm.; bill 40; tarsus 58-62. 



Immature: As Sclater noted in 1866 both sexes pass through a plumage more nearly resembling the 

 male's than the female's, a fact of great interest and rarity in the bird world. The head and upper 

 portion of the neck are sooty black, varied with light brown; lower portion of neck dark brown, with 

 narrow transverse lines of rufous; the whole of the under surface blackish brown, mottled and barred 

 with rufous, each feather narrowly margined with white; shoulders, back and lower parts of the body 

 black, with white freckles and vermiculations; wings as in the adult; rump and tail black; under tail- 

 coverts pale ferruginous (Buller). 



Young males have a tinge of brown about the head and the shoulders more or less margined with 

 dull fulvous brown, presenting on the surface, wavy lines (Buller). Young females show irregular 

 white feathers on the head and neck, which rapidly increase in number, till the plumage of these 

 parts becomes entirely white (Buller). 



