ANATID. AT5 
it also walks and runs more easily upon land, resem- 
bling in both particulars the Gull rather than the 
Duck. 
The Burrow Duck becomes very tame and breeds 
readily in confinement, provided it can find a suitable 
place ; but, notwithstanding its tameness, it has a 
wandering disposition, and if not very carefully 
pinioned will almost to a certainty leave its quarters 
in the spring. I have known two or three broods 
bred up in these ponds, and the young ones were so 
tame that they would eat out of one’s hand; it was 
consequently not thought necessary to pinion them 
at all; but in their first spring they all went off, 
probably to their native places, in the mud and sand 
of the Bristol Channel: perhaps these escapes may 
account for occasional visits paid me, especially in 
the spring, by a few pairs of apparently wild Burrow 
Ducks; these, however, never stay more than a few 
days ata time, and always do their best to decoy 
away any pinioned ones there may be in the pond. 
The nest of the Burrow Duck is usually placed in 
a rabbit-hole at some considerable distance from the 
entrance; but if a convenient hole cannot be found, 
the nest is occasionally placed in a thick bramble or 
furze-bush,—always in the very thickest part,—a 
regular creep being made, through which the bird 
approaches her nest, and which the eager birds- 
nester will have to follow up for some distance before 
he will be able to reach the eggs: the nest itself is 
