78 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. 



the first I have seen here, but in Orkney these birds are very- 

 numerous and are there known as the burrow duck, or sly- 

 goose. Sly they certainly are, as evidenced by a pair which 

 nested regularly within a couple of hundred yards of the 

 lighthouse at which I was then stationed. A covered drain 

 was the site annually chosen, the nest being placed several 

 yards from the mouth, which opened out on a spacious grassy 

 hollow. The bright brown and white plumage, with vermilion 

 bill and feet, render these birds most conspicuous objects in an 

 ordinary landscape ; but squatting on a shingly beach, where 

 their colours harmonise better with their surroundings, their 

 presence is less easily detected. Frequently I have watched 

 their movements with a telescope from the lantern, and though 

 no one was stirring within seeing distance of them, the 

 greatest caution was always exercised in approaching the 

 nest. Lighting a hundred yards from the nest, a pretence of 

 feeding diligently was made, though their heads could be seen 

 frequently lifting in the direction from which intrusion was 

 to be expected. Gradually circling nearer the nest, passing 

 and repassing it with apparent indifference, till within a few 

 feet of it they would then suddenly vanish. The exact 

 moment of their entrance I was never able to note, as they 

 appeared to assume an invisibility during the remaining few 

 feet of their journey that was really astonishing, but which is 

 less a matter of surprise when one has witnessed the squatting 

 in concealment of a hen pheasant on sparse grassy ground. 

 Burrow duck is a name applied to these birds from their 

 habit of nesting in disused rabbit burrows. I have counted as 

 many as forty young ones following a single pair, while others 

 may have only three or four juveniles in their train. It 

 is said they do not scruple to steal the young ones from each 

 other. If alarmed while feeding among the decaying sea- 

 ware on the beach, some of the parents will fly to meet the 

 intruder and endeavour to divert his attention in another 

 direction, while the others fly seawards, followed by their 

 callow broods flapping their little wings, while their feet 

 tip-tip the surface a veritable walking on the waters. 



