THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
SHELD-DUCK 
TADORNA TADORNA 
(Plate XXVIII, Fig. 1) 
Tadorna vulpanser, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 357 (1837). 
Tadorna cornuta, Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 451, pi. 420 (1878); Hume & Marshall, Game 
Birds Ind., iii, p. 135, pi. 18 (1880) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, part xxvi, pi. (1893) ; Salva- 
dori. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 171 (1895) ; Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 419 (1899). 
DULT male. — Head and upper half of the neck black, glossed 
with dull green and dull purplish; round the lower neck a 
/ broad white collar; a broad band of bright chestnut 
i across the upper back and upper breast ; outer scapulars 
i black, inner ones white; a wide black band down the 
middle of the breast and belly; under tail -coverts 
uniform rufous -buff; rest of the plumage of the body, including the wing- 
coverts and axillaries, pure white ; primary quills and their coverts black; 
the secondaries with the outer web bronze-green, forming a speculum; 
longest inner secondaries rich chestnut on the outer web, white on the 
inner web, with a black band along the shaft. Tail-feathers white, tipped 
with black. Iris brown; bill and swollen knob at the base bright red; legs, 
toes and membranes pinkish -flesh -colour. Total length about 22 inches; 
bill 2 1 inches; wing 13*0 inches; tail 4*2 inches ; tarsus 2 1 inches. 
Adult female. — Similar to the male, but rather smaller and less brightly 
coloured, the chestnut feathers of the mantle being paler, generally more 
or less vermiculated with blackish; and the black scapulars slightly 
freckled with rufous -buff. No swollen knob at the base of the bill. Total 
length about 20 inches ; bill 1 9 inches; wing 12*0 inches ; tail 4*0 inches ; 
tarsus 2*0 inches. 
General distribution. — In Western Europe the sheld-duck breeds from 
about 70° N. latitude in Norway, southwards to France and Spain; also 
in the Ural Mountains up to about 56°. In the basins of the Black and 
Caspian Seas it is resident, but over the rest of Europe, along the basin 
of the Mediterranean and in North Africa it is chiefly known as a winter- 
visitor. It occasionally visits the Faeroes and has been met with in Iceland. 
Eastwards it breeds on the salt steppes of Southern Siberia, and in Central 
Asia on the salt lakes of Turkestan and Mongolia, and ranges to Japan ; 
while in winter it visits North India, South China and Formosa. 
Distribution in the British Isles. — ^In the British Isles it is resident and 
324 
