ANAS TADORNOLDES, (nobis). 

 New Holland Sheldrake. 



PLATE LXII. 



A. capite remigibus caudaque nigris, pectore, inferiore colli, castaneis ; collum cingulo 

 albo ; dorso abdomineque nigris, albo castaneoque pulcherrime sparsis. 



New Holland Shieldrake, Lath. Gen. Hist. vol. x. p. 306. 



The only specimen we have ever seen of this duck, was purchased a con- 

 siderable time since with some other New Holland skins ; and it appears 

 to be the same as that described by Dr Latham under the title of " New 

 Holland Shieldrake." We do not know in what part of the country it was 

 killed. It is certainly yet unfigured. 



In the shape, size, and somewhat in the distribution of colouring, it re- 

 sembles the Sheldrake, but wants all the real characters which belong to 

 this group. The head and upper part of the neck are brownish-black, 

 glossed with green : the colour of the breast is a fine pale chesnut, which 

 runs over and joins upon the upper part of the back ; between the chesnut 

 and the brownish-black of the head and neck, there is a ring of about half 

 an inch in breadth, pure white ; the back, belly, and vent, are brownish- 

 black, finely waved and mottled with reddish-white ; the shoulder, the 

 greater and lesser wing-coverts, are pure white ; the lower scapulars are 

 deep chesnut on the outer webs, on the inner reddish-grey ; the secon- 

 dary quills are a rich glossy green ; the quills, rump, tail, and under co- 

 verts, deep black, all but the first glossed with green ; the bill, legs and 

 feet are bluish-black. 



