132 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Winter range. — Resident over much of its breeding range. East 

 in winter to Japan. South to Formosa, Ceylon, India, southern Arabia, 

 Egypt, Abyssinia, Sahara, Algeria and Morocco. 



Casual records. — Wanders to Scandinavia, Great Britain, Iceland, 

 and Greenland. 



Egg dates. — Southern Russia: Eight records, May 7 to June 1. 



TADORNA TADORNA (Llnnaene.) 

 SHELD DUCK. 

 HABITS. 



Here we have the latest addition to the American list of ducks, 

 the common sheld duck of Europe, which has recently been taken on 

 the coast of Massachusetts. Mr, Albert P. Morse (1921) has recorded 

 the important event, as follows : 



An example of the common a'leld duck, a female, was killed October 5, 1921, by 

 Capt. Howard H. Tobey, of Gloucester, in Ipswich Bay off Annisquam, not far from 

 the mouth of the Essex River. Through the kind efforts of Mr. Carl E. Grant, game 

 Wiirden at Gloucester, the specimen was secured for the Peabody Museum of Salem, 

 and identified by State Ornithologist Forbush, who has reported its occurrence to the 

 Auk. It lias been mounted by J. W. Goodridge, of Soutli Hamilton, and now adds 

 interest to the Essex County collection of the Peabody Museum. The bird was 

 described as being extremely wild, and its plumage showed no signs of the wear and 

 tear or soilure indicative of captivity, so that this specimen can properly be regarded 

 as a wanderur from the Old World. 



Nesting. — Yarrell (1871) refers to the nesting habits of this species 

 as follows: 



The sheld duck breeds, as already stated, in some kind of burrow, which often 

 describes an imperfect circle, tbe nest being sometimes 10 or 12 feet from the entrance. 

 It is composed of bents of grass and is gradually lined, during the progress of laying, 

 with fine soft down, little inferior to that of the eider duck and collected in some 

 places for its commercial value. The eggs are of a smooth, shining white, and meas- 

 ure about 2.75 by 1.9 inches. The nest may sometimes be discovered by the print 

 of the owner's feet on the sand, but the wary bird will often fiy straight into the 

 entrance without alighting outside. Tlie old bird is sometimes taken by a snare set 

 at the mouth of the burrow, and the eggs being hatched under domestic hens, the 

 birds thus obtained are kept as an ornament on ponds. 



On the North Frisian Islands, according to Mr. Durnford, the natives make 

 artificial burrows in the sand hillocks, and cut a hole in the turf over the passage, 

 covering it with a sod, so as to disclose the nest when eggs are required. There are 

 sometimes as many as a dozen or 15 nests in one hillock witliin the compass of 8 or 9 

 yards. The eggs are taken up to the 18th of June, after which the birds are allowed 

 to incubate: but the nest is never robbed of all the eggs. Naumann, who had already 

 given a similar account of the way in which these birds are farmed in the island of 

 Sylt, states that if no eggs are taken the same bird never lays more than 16; but if 

 the first (J eggs are left, and all those subsequently laid are taken, she will continue 

 laying up to 30. Some German authorities state that nests have been found in 

 the "earths " of the fox and the badger. 



