COMMON SHELD-DUCK. 161 



protection it meets with there prevents any decrease in 

 its numbers, but on approaching the large watering- 

 places further south, it is terribly disturbed by the 

 parties of visitors which frequent them, and no expecta- 

 tion can be held of its long continuance in these locali- 

 ties. Still it keeps a precarious footing, and within the 

 last few years nests have been found both north and 

 south of the estuaries of the Lune and the Eibble, 

 whilst on the Mersey above Liverpool a pair or two breed 

 regularly. Formerly it appears to have been very 

 abundant, and Donovan (" Nat. Hist. Brit. Birds," 1794- 

 1819) speaks of it as being "found in vast quantities on 

 several of our sea-coasts, and particularly about the 

 rivers and lakes in Lancashire and Essex." Mr. W. A. 

 Durnford, also, who has an extensive acquaintance with 

 this species, in noticing {ZooL, 1877) a flock of about a 

 hundred which he saw in Walney channel on January 

 13th, 1877, writes of them as only " a small remnant of 

 the thousands which, within the memory of man, used 

 to frequent the warrens in this locality " ; and the late 

 Dr. Skaife {Maa. Nat. Hist., 1838) says that about the 

 mouth of the Wyre, where now it is very infrequent, it 

 bred regularly. The Sheld-Duck lays from nine to 

 twelve eggs in old rabbit-burrows, and usually eight to 

 ten 'feet deep in them, but Mr. Durnford records an 

 instance (ZooL, 1880, p. 241) in which he found as many 

 as sixteen eggs at a distance of only three feet from the 

 hole-mouth. The young are hatched late in May, or 

 early in June, and take to the water at a very early age, 

 rapidly becoming expert in diving ; while the female 

 employs all the usual feints of pretended lameness, if 

 suddenly disturbed among her brood on shore. The 

 nests are difficult to find, and the birds are very shy 

 and wary ; the lighthouse keeper on "Walney told the late 



