COMMON SHEILDRAKE. 103 



They are generally distributed in Britain wherever 

 suitable localities occur, and range to the very north 

 of Scotland and to Orkney. On the shores of Europe 

 they also appear from Sweden to Italy ; out of Eu- 

 rope, on the authority of Temminck, they are found 

 in Japan. They are easily kept in confinement where 

 they have access to water, and form a very handsome 

 ornament, but they do not breed freely under re- 

 straint ; perhaps the want of a suitable cover or re- 

 treat may have some effect in preventing this, for we 

 have not generally seen any place provided where 

 they could form a nest, as among rocks or burrows. 

 The nests we have seen in an artificial state were 

 placed under some bushes or herbage, and formed 

 with the down from the bird like that of a tame 

 duck when breeding away from the poultry-yard. 



Head and neck glossy blackish green ; lower part 

 of neck and upper breast pure white, succeeded by 

 a broad pectoral and narrow dorsal band of pale 

 chestnut-red ; centre of back, rump, tail, shoulders, 

 lesser wing-covers, sides and thighs, pure white ; 

 scapulars, quills, and tip of the tail, olack ; tertials 

 white, outer webs broadly edged with chestnut, se- 

 parated from the white by a dark line shading into 

 both colours; centre of the belly and running through 

 the chestnut band, black ; vent and under tail-covers 

 pale yellowish red. The young birds have not the 

 bright colouring or decided markings of the old ; the 

 chestnut colours are more of a blackish brown, and 

 the w r hite is clouded with grey. The glossy black 

 of the head and neck is also wanting ; the fore part 



