SHIELDRAKE.. EFL 
They walk in an easy and handsome way, with the neck 
bent in a graceful manner. They fly strongly and quickly, 
in a straight line. They dive well. 
These birds feed on marine worms, sandhoppers, small 
shell-fish, the lesser crustacea, and the fry of fish, as also 
on grain and seeds when to be obtained in lieu of the former. 
The note is a shrill whistle. 
Incubation lasts about thirty days. These birds are believed 
to pair for life: they unite in the second year, when the 
complete plumage has been assumed. 
The Shieldrake builds in rabbit-holes and other hollows in 
the earth, often as much as ten or twelve feet from the entrance. 
Some down plucked from their own breasts is the lining with 
which the nest is fitted, the remainder being dry grass. 
The eggs are ten or twelve, or even more, it is said thirteen 
or fourteen in number; but these, in such cases, may possibly 
have been the produce of two birds. They are nearly perfectly 
white, having only a very faint tinge of green, and are smooth 
and shining. 
Male; length, from two feet to two feet two inches; bill, 
crimson red; there is a knob on its upper part near the 
forehead: the tooth is black. The upper mandible, which 1s 
broad and flat, is grooved on the edges, and depressed in the 
middle. Tris, dark brown; head, crown, and neck on the back, 
black glossed with green; nape, white, which colour thence 
surrounds the neck in a band widened at and towards the front. 
Chin and throat, black glossed with green; breast, white; across 
it is a broad band of clear orange chesnut brown, which extends 
around the bird, and meets on the back just below the nape: 
a rich dusky dark brown line runs down the lower part of the 
_breast, widened below; about there are some pale yellowish red 
feathers; back, white. 
The wings have the second feather the longest; greater and 
lesser wing coverts, white. Of the primaries, some are nearly 
black, and the outer webs of the secondaries are glossed with 
golden green, forming what in this tribe is called the speculum: 
the edges of three or four of these quills are chesnut; some 
of the tertiaries are nearly black on the outer edges, those of 
the longest rich chesnut. Tail, white at the base—the tip 
black; upper and under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, pale 
yellowish red; webs, pale yellowish red. 
The female is somewhat less than the male, and her plumage 
