Vale RUDDY STELLORAKE* OR 
BRATMINY DUCK. 
ae ee J ee eS 
Casarcat rutila, Pallas. 
———0 
Vornacular WNames.—[Surkhab, (Hindustani); Chakwa, (male), Chakwi 
(female), (Hindee); Lall, (many boatmen on Jumna); Boogri, (Bengali); Mungh, 
Sind ; Sarza, (Mahrathi), Poona, Sattara ; Neer-bathoo, Neer-kolee, S. enin- 
sula ; Bassana Chilluwa, (Telegu) ; Hin-tha, Peg; Surkhed, Cadu/ ; Hangat, 
(Turki), Yarkand. 
0 
~SXE8 OUNTLESS myriads of the Brahminy yearly visit 
India during the cold season, and there are few 
places in the Empire where they may not be met 
with. Still they are not found, I believe, on the 
mainland in Tenasserim, South of the Gulf of 
Martaban, (Davison believes he saw one straggler 
on Kolan Island in the Mergui Archipelago), nor have 
they yet been recorded from Travancore,t Malabar or the 
Southern Konkan,§ while in Tinnevelly, Salem, Coimbatorel| 
_and the southern portions of Mysore they are rare. 
In the North-east of Mysore and the northern half of the 
Madras Presidency, and thence northwards in the Deccan, the 
Nizam’s Dominions, and so on through the whole Empire to the 
Hubb River and Shabkadr on the extreme west, and Dibrugarh, 
Munipur, and Northern Tenasserim on the extreme east, the 
*The derivation of this name is doubtful, and it is spelt in a variety of ways, 
Shelldrake, Shieldrake, &c. I suspect that the original name was that by which it 
still goes in the north, vzz., Skeldrake, or Skel goose. 
+It is very doubtful whether Casarca should be recognized as a genus, and whether 
it would not be better to re-unite it with Zadorna, the type of which is the common 
Shell. or Shieldrake. As separated, Zadorna has the sexes alike, the bills broader 
and red or yellow ; and the culmens markedly concave, while in Casarca the sexes differ 
more or less in plumage, and the bills are less concave on the culmen and black, 
+ Though extremely rare there, it Aas occurred in Ceylon. 
§ Mr. G. Vidal writes :— 
‘© The Ruddy Shelldrake is common in the cold weather in Poona, Sattara, &c., on 
the Bhima, Nira, and Yerla Rivers, and perhaps also the Krishna, though I have never 
found it there. J/¢ 7s unknown in Ratnagiri. They are found sometimes in small 
flocks, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes solitary. They are late in leaving, indivi- 
duals or pairs being frequently seen in March and April, and perhaps even in May.” 
|| Mr. Albert Theobald says :— 
‘*T have shot them in the Salem, Tinnevelly, and Coimbatore Districts. They come 
in about November and leave about March. I have shot them in the Collegal Taluq 
as late as June; this was in 1869, They are not common, seldom more than 2 or 4 
in a batch,” 
