COMMON SHELD-DUCK. 355 



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 sixteen ; but if the first six eggs 

 are left, and all those subsequently laid are taken, she will 

 continue laying up to thirty. Some German authorities 

 state that nests have been found in the ' earths ' of the Fox 

 and the Badger. 



Incubation lasts about twenty-eight or thirty days, during 

 which time the male watches near at hand. When the 

 young are hatched they follow the parents, and in some 

 situations are carried by the female on her back to the 

 water, where they soon learn to feed and take care of them- 

 selves. The food of this Duck consists of seaw^eed, mollusks, 

 saudhoppers, sea-worms, and marine insects ; the Author 

 found the stomachs filled with very minute bivalves and 

 univalves only, as though the birds had sought no other 

 food. In captivity they feed on grain of any sort, soaked 

 bread, and vegetables. The note is a shrill whistle. The 

 flesh is coarse, dark in colour, and unpleasant in smell and 

 flavour. 



As Montagu and other writers have stated that this species 

 does not breed readily in confinement, the following hint 

 may be of service. When the Zoological Society first had 

 a pair of these birds, they exhibited no signs of breeding ; 

 but their natural habits being consulted by putting them 

 into a place, where there was a bank of earth in which some 

 holes were purposely made, the birds immediately nested in 

 one of the holes, bringing out a brood in 1835, and again 

 in 1836. In the season of 1841 there was a fine show of 

 young birds, from which the description of the plumage 

 of the birds of the year in their immature dress will be 

 hereafter given ; and broods were hatched each subsequent 

 year up to 1848. The young birds soon become tolerably 

 tame, and answer to the call of the person who feeds them ; 

 when fully fledged, however, they are apt to stray away, and 

 if left unpinioned, generally in time fly entirely off", though 



