432 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Wilstrop, killed from a party of two or three in late autumn, 

 about 1860 ; and five others are said to have been obtained 

 at Scarborough in October 1890. 



In the so-called Polish Swan, the young birds are white, 

 but it is now considered by ornithologists to be a mere variety 

 of C. olor as regards the plumage of the immature bird. 



(See Saunders' " Manual, 2nd Ed. p. 418 ; and the letters 

 of Messrs. Saunders, Macpherson, Bartlett, and Southwell, 

 Field, 25th August and ist "September 1894.)] 



COMMON SHELD-DUCK. 



Tadorna cornuta (S. G. Gmelin). 



Resident in limited numbers, its breeding quarters being confined 

 to the Humber and Teesmouth districts. Large flocks of migrants 

 observed in spring and autumn. Occasionally occurs inland. 



The Rev. John Graves appears to have first mentioned the 

 Sheld-Duck in connection with this county, in his " History 

 of Cleveland " (1808), where it is enumerated amongst the 

 resident birds. 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : 



Tadorna vulpanser. Common Shieldrake Has been shot near 

 Doncaster, and is of rare occurrence near York, though small flocks 

 occasionally appear about Sutton-on-Derwent ; I at one time obtained 

 about half-a-dozen from that locality ; W. Eddison remarks that the 

 Shieldrake, Scaup, Shoveler, Wigeon, Pochard, Pintail, Golden-eye, 

 Tufted Duck, Garganey, and Teal are all birds of passage, and are 

 frequently shot as they rest on the large reservoirs on the wild moors 

 near Huddersfield, particularly after stormy weather and adverse 

 winds, or during long frosts, when keepers frequently shoot numbers 

 of them, many of them rare and often beautiful specimens. A. Strick- 

 land says this bird used to, and still occasionally does, breed in rabbit 

 burrows a little north of the banks of the Humber, to which place 

 they take their young as soon as they are able to travel ; a pair of 

 young birds have been shot within the present month near Driffield ; 

 it is occasionally shot near Thirsk. 



It is with great satisfaction that I am able to claim this 

 handsome Duck as still resident in the county, though in but 



