88 ANATIDAi 
its footprints can seldom be found. It is not supposed to 
leave its nest until early morning or at twilight. I have 
known of a sitting bird which was dug out and captured 
on the nest. The eggs have also been discovered in holes 
on precipices, and rarely, in furze-coverts. Grasses, leaves, 
and fragments of dry seaweeds, with a warm lining a iene 
are the ‘building materials used. 
The eggs, seven td twelve in number, are cream- 
coloured. Incubation usually begins in May. 'he parent- 
birds watch over their brood most carefully ; the nestlings 
are conveyed in safety to the sea by scrambling on to their 
mother’s back. 
Geographical distribution.—The Sheld-Duck has a wide 
breeding-distribution round the British coast. North of 
Britain it breeds in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and 
Holland. South of our Isles it reaches the shores of France 
and Spain, and extends eastward to the Black and Caspian 
Seas. It is also found on some of the salt lakes of Asia, as 
far east as Japan, while its winter range extends to the 
Tropic of Cancer (Saunders). It is at once seen that the 
Sheld-Duck is less arctic in its breeding-range than are 
most of the Wild Geese and Swans. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial.—Head and upper neck, 
dark glossy-green, below which is a white collar, while at 
the root of the neck is a broad chestnut band extending 
across the upper part of the back and breast ; rest of back, 
white ; breast and abdomen, white, interrupted by a broad 
dark brown median line); scapulars and primaries, nearly 
black; alar speculum,! green, bounded behind by a line of 
chestnut ; tail, white, tipped with black ; wing-coverts, 
white. 
Adult female nuptial—sSimilar in colour to the male 
but duller in pattern.” 
Adult winter, male and fe 
plumage. 
Immature, male and female.—Head and neck, dark 
mouse-colour, the feathers ae finely edged with dull 
1 The aiar speculum is the bright lustrous patch on the secondaries. 
2 Like the Geese the sexes of the Sheld-Duck are almost similar in 
plumage, and the male does not assume an ‘ eclipse’ dress. 
