102 COMMON SHEILDRAKE. 



with brushwood, but intersected with bays ; and by 

 tb_e mouths of rivers we have seen them coming 

 from their inland breeding places over extensive 

 woods, skimming with a low flight just above the 

 trees. It breeds in the holes and crevices of rocks, 

 and when ne&/ ' ^varreii, selects the rabbit burrows. 

 When the young are hatched, they are conducted 

 to the sea, and Mr. Selby states, are sometimes car - 

 ried in the bill of the parents to their protecting 

 element. If come upon when the young are newly 

 hatcbed, the old birds- endeavour to lead off the in- 

 trivaw-i ov feigning lameness like some of the rasores 

 and grallatores ; but when they have reached a more 

 advanced state, unless a dog is present, they almost 

 invariably fly straight away. When half fledged, 

 however, they are seldom found far from water, 

 though we have once or twice come upon them on 

 the flat sands of the Solway, more than half-a-miie 

 from the sea or any stream ; but notwithstanding, a 

 single specimen was all that could be obtained, from 

 the brood scattering, and making use of every little 

 pool as a cover by diving, which in an extremity of 

 this kind they do most actively. We have usually 

 found the sheildrakes arriving about their breeding 

 grounds in the beginning of March ; and where land 

 had been embanked from the sea, have seen them 

 early in the morning frequenting the fallow or newly 

 sown grounds. After the young have been fully 

 fledged, they appear to keep to the open sea, and we 

 have seldom then seen them on land, and neither 

 have we seen them on the coasts after September. 



