PLATE II. 



GENUS CASARCA. {Bonaparte.) 



THIS is a somewhat rare genus, comprising not more than four species, of which two belong to New Zealand, 

 and one to Australia, The latter represents Casarca rutila of Europe. 



CASARCA TADOKNOIDES. (Gould.) 



CHESTNUT-COLOURED SHIELD RA EE. Genus: Casarca. 



1 N this bird we have the finest and handsomest of all the duck tribe indigenous to the southern continent. It 

 | is a splendid bird, larger than a Muscovy cluck, while its plumage requires the aid of the brush to do it 

 justice. 



The Shieldrake is very generally distributed over New South Wales, Victoria, South and Western 

 Australia, and Tasmania, but is nowhere plentiful. It haunts much the same localities as the Radjah, and 

 subsists on the same food, small fish, Crustacea, and mollusks ; but it seems to have a soul above rush roots. 



At one time it used to resort to the bays, rivers, and estuaries near Hobart, though now civilisation has 

 driven it to the inaccessible inland lakes. In South Australia it used to breed every year in the spring, on the 

 alluvial flats around Gawler ; in other places it deposits its eggs in the hollows of lofty gum trees. 



The nest is formed of down plucked from the bird's own breast. As many as thirteen eggs have been 

 taken from a single nest ; from another, four. The egg is very smooth to the touch, and in Colour a light 

 creamy white. Dimensions, two inches and three-quarters long by nearly two inches broad. 



The female is smaller than the male, the markings of her plumage less pure, while there is a distinctive 

 ring of white or mottled feathers round the base of the bill. 



Head and upper part of neck glossy dark green ; base of neck pure white collar ; chest, shoulders, and 

 upper part of back rich chestnut ; upper and under surfaces, black, finely freckled with straw yellow ; 

 wing coverts, pure white; upper and under tail feathers, black, with green sheen; primaries, dull black; 

 secondaries, rich glossy green on their outer webs, black on their inner ; tertiaries, deep chestnut on their outer, 

 and grey on their inner webs ; irides, dark brown ; bill, black ; legs, greyish black. 



Habitats : New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, West and South- West Australia, 

 and New Zealand. 



