COMMON SHELLDRAKE. 



ficulty. This species differs greatly from that of the same 

 genus last described, it being rarely seen inland, unless 

 in a semi-domestic state and pinioned; but some are con- 

 stantly found on the sea-coast, and that during the whole 

 year, preferring flat shores, sandy bars, and links, where it 

 breeds in rabbit burrows, or other holes in the soft soil, 

 and hence has obtained the name of Burrow Duck, and 

 Bar Gander, which Dr. Turner considers is derived from 

 berg and gander, because it also builds in rocks. In Scot- 

 land it is called Skeeling Goose, according to Sibbald, and 

 other writers since his time. Many Shieldrakes come 

 from the north to visit this country for the winter, return- 

 ing again in the spring. 



The authors of the Catalogue of the Norfolk and Suf- 

 folk Birds mention that it breeds in the rabbit burrows 

 formed in the sand-hills upon the coast of Norfolk. Its 

 nest is discovered by the print of its feet on the sand, and 

 therefore most easily found in calm weather ; for in windy 

 weather the driving sand soon obliterates the impression. 

 The old bird is sometimes taken by a snare set at the 

 mouth of the burrow r . The eggs are often hatched under 

 domestic hens, and the birds thus obtained kept as an 

 ornament on ponds. 



Mr. Selby mentions that these birds are also regular 

 inhabitants of the sandy parts of the Northumbrian coast, 

 and, during the breeding-season, the holes in the earth 

 frequented by them are furnished with bents of grass and 

 other dry vegetable materials, forming a nest sometimes 

 as far as ten or twelve feet from the entrance, and lined 

 with fine soft down, plucked from their own breasts. They 

 lay from ten to twelve eggs, and sometimes more ; these 

 are rather large, of a smooth shining white, about two 

 inches nine lines in length, and one inch eleven lines in 

 breadth. Incubation is said to last thirty days, during 



VOL. in. R 



