Cy 
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8 ANAS CLYPEATA. 
down—what down there was, was very black. The eggs are long and oval, 
darker than the widgeon, but not unlike the colour, slightly tinged with 
green; we have put nine of the eggs under ahen.” One of these two was 
figured by Mr. Hewitson as above. ] 
5616. Three.—Elveden, 28 June, 1856. “A. & BE. N.” 
5617. Hive-—Elveden, 17 May, 1857. “HE. N.” 
5618. Four.—FElveden, June, PSR. - “BIN? 
All the abo¥e (§§ 5616-5618) were the produce of a bird bought in London 
in 1854, her mate having been caught in a decoy at Methwold, in Norfolk, 
and both kept on a pond at Elveden. They did not breed till 1856, when she 
made a nest in a dry pit close to the pond on which they lived, and laid 
eight eggs, from which four young were reared, In 1857, she laid seven eggs 
in a nest in long grass, but being disturbed she forsook them, and about 
a month later made a second nest near the site of 1856, to which my brother 
Edward watched her on the 16th of June, finding it to contain nine eggs. 
There she was again disturbed by cows, and deserted the eggs which had 
been left for her to brood. One of the eggs of the 1856 nest was given 
to Canon Tristram, and is now in Mr. Parkin’s collection. One from’ the 
first nest of 1857 was given to Mr. Perey Godman, and two from the second 
to Mr. Salvin and Mr. A. C. Smith—one to each. } 
5619. Two.—Norfolk, May, 1873. From Lord Wal- 
singham. 
I received these on the 22nd of the month, and on blowing them found 
them to be quite fresh. They were from either the historic Stanford (§ 5612) 
or Tomston, but the gamekeeper who, by his master’s order, sent them to me 
did not let me know which. Earlier in the season Lord Walsingham had 
kindly taken me to both places, and at the latter I had the pleasure ef taking 
with my own hands a Crested Grebe’s egg (§ 5043), but at the former there 
were three Shoveler drakes and one duck, or perhaps a second—beside seven 
or eight Pochards and several Tufted Ducks. It was too early then for eggs 
of any of them, but the gamekeeper told me that the Shoveler bred there 
every year, though net till the end of May, or June. | 
5620. Oxe.—Stanford, Norfolk, 29 May, 1876. “ Bird 
well seen. <A. N.” 
Lord Walsingham was good enough to take me to a Shoveler’s nest on the 
heath to the north of the water at Stanford, of which his gamekeeper knew 
and gaye us the bearings, where Mr. Salmon had found it breeding forty-one 
