CASARCA RUTILA.
Ruddy Sheldrake.

Anas rutila, Pall. Nov. Comm. Petrop., tom. xiv. p. 579, tab. 22. toa le

—— easarca, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 511.

Tadorna rutila, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 563.

Vulpanser rutila, Keys. und Blas. Wirbelth. Eur., p. 84.

Tadorna casarca, Macgill. Man. of Nat. Hist., Orn., vol. ii. Devos:

Casarca rutila, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List. of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 56.

 

From the circumstance of the trivial name of this species being ‘‘ Ruddy Sheldrake” it would naturally be
supposed that it is closely allied to the bird figured in the preceding plate, the Zadorna vulpanser ; and to
a certain extent it is; but, as every ornithologist is aware, the two birds have been generically separated. The
Common Sheldrake is one of the most ornamental of our water-fowl, graceful in its actions, beautiful in its
markings, and domestic in disposition—traits which render it an especial favourite ; the Ruddy Sheldrake,
on the other hand, although a finely coloured bird, and by no means devoid of beauty, is more Anserine or
Goose-like in its actions and economy, and is more adapted for the land than the water, on which element it
is less graceful and buoyant ; its bill and legs, too, are coarse and black—instead of being richly coloured,
like those of the Common Sheldrake.

The Casarca rutila, unlike the Tadorna vulpanser (which is indigenous to our islands), is merely a visitor,
and one of the rarest birds so classified in our lists, its occurrences here being few and at periods far apart.
The first British specimen is said to have been killed as long ago as 1776, and to still form a part of the col-
lection at Newcastle-on-Tyne. The late Mr. Fox, of Durham, appears to have been the first to notice it as
British, from the example above alluded to, which previously belonged to Marmaduke Tunstal, and which
was believed to have been shot at Bryanstone, near Blandford, in Dorsetshire. Yarrell states that two other
specimens have since been killed—one in the south of England, now in the collection of the late Mr. Selby,
and the other in January 1834, at Iken, near Orford, on the coast of Suffolk, which passed into the possession
of Mr. Manning, of Woodbridge. Thompson, in his ‘ Natural History of Ireland,’ states that an example of
this species was shot “on the Murrough of Wicklow, by Mr. John Moreton of that town, on the 7th of July,
1847. The Murrough is an extensive low sandy tract bordering the sea, such as is resorted to by the
Common Sheldrake (7. vupanser) for the purpose of breeding.” «On the next day,” adds Thompson, “ the
specimen came into the possession of T. W. Warren, Esq. Its plumage indicates a male, nearly adult.”
Besides the above, the Rev. F. O. Morris speaks of another as having been obtained on Sanday Island, one of
the Orkneys, by Mr. Strang, in October 1831.

The range of the Ruddy Sheldrake over the surface of the globe appears to be almost as extensive as that
of the Common Sheldrake ; for it is found in most of the warmer parts of Europe and, I believe, the whole
of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, and, like most other species which frequent
the latter part of that continent, Palestine, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, and Persia; it is also one of the
commonest species of Ducks in the peninsula of India, in Thibet, China, Formosa, and Japan. The justly
celebrated Russian naturalist, Pallas, states that it does not extend beyond 50° N. lat., and that in Mongolia,
where it breeds in Marmot-holes and hollow trees, it is held sacred by the Mongols and Calmucks.
Dr. Hooker observed it breeding in the rocks of the Himalayas, and Dr. Adams in Sikhim and Ladakh. The
following extracts will show that the bird has many habits in common with the Sheldrake, particularly that
of breeding in holes ; like that species, too, it is said to be almost unfit for human food :-—

Mr. W. H. Simpson, in his < Fortnight on the Dobrudscha,’ says, ‘The earth-cliffs about Kustendjé” (the
eastern terminus of the Danube and Black-Sea Railway) “are much resorted to by birds for breeding, from the
facility with which they are perforated. The Ruddy Shelduck breeds in these places, and also in the holes
of Trajan’s Wall, and in other holes up the country. Though the bird is plentiful, it is by no means easy to
obtain the eggs. I and my friend spent the greater part of the day in driving a tunnel into a bank where
one had been seen to come out. But our labour was in vain; for, after advancing several yards, working one
at a time, prostrate and in the dark, the original hole was found to fork off into two branches. The natives
sometimes obtain a sitting, and the young ones are brought up for domestic purposes.”—/dis, 1861, p. 365.

‘‘Hundreds of these birds,” says the Rev. H. B. Tristram, in his «Notes on the Ornithology of North
Africa,’ “resort to the salt lakes of Bou Guizoun, Waregla, Tuggurt, &c. At Bou Guizoun I captured
some half-dozen nestlings of various ages in the downy state, some of them scarcely more than a day old ;
and yet the only place where they could possibly have bred, and where we had procured a nest three days