THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 529 



329.— Shell Duck [Buandente]. 



ANAS TADORNA, Linn.i 



Heligolandish : Ba.Tger-'Enn = Bergente'i (Mountain-Duck). 



Anas tadorna. Naumann, xi. 534. 



Shelldrake. Dresser, vi. 451. 



Canard tadorne. Teuiminck, Manuel, ii. S33, iv. 531. 



This bird is on the whole but of rare occurrence here, although 

 in Slesw'iek-Holstein, near by, it is fairly numerous as a breeding 

 species — in fact, almost as a domestic bird. Those which are met 

 with on this island are, for the most part, young individuals, killed 

 on occasional instances in August and September. Old birds have 

 only been seen and shot rarely, their number, so far as my observa- 

 tions go, amounting to about half a dozen, almost all of which 

 occurred in the winter months during severe frosts. 



The breeding range of this species extends from Great Britain to 

 eastern Asia, and from northern Germany up to 70° N. latitude in 

 northern Scandinavia. 



330. — Common Scoter [Trauekente]. 



ANAS NIGRA, Linn.2 



Heligolandish : Male : Knobbed. Name derived from the hump on the beak. 

 Female : Biihrn. Name without further signitication. 



Anas nigra. Naumann, xii. 99. 



Common Scoter. Dresser, vi. 663. 



Canard macre.use. Temmiuck, Manuel, ii. S56, iv. 543. 



If we include, in our report on the swimming birds of Heligoland, 

 those ducks which live upon the sea around, the fauna acquires a 

 difierent aspect. On the island poverty of numbers characterises 

 this division, but on the sea, at certain times, the quantity of 

 birds to be seen, during long and severe winters, for miles around 

 this island, is quite beyond conception, and defies all description. 

 A long spell of frost, such as was experienced, e.g., in the winteis 

 of 1837-38, 1844-45, and on other occasions, causes the whole of the 

 Baltic to be covered with ice, while the entire bay from around the 

 coast of East Friesland up to Sylt forms one continuous field of pack 

 ice. All the flocks of birds which, during ordinary winters, are in 

 the habit of staying in the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, and under 

 the shelter of the west coast of Holstein, now congregate on the 



' Tadorna comuta (Gmel. ). - (Edemia nigra (Linn.). 



2l 



