66 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



fowl are more easily domesticated or are prettier 

 pets, whether old birds taken alive or a brood from 

 the sand-hills. 



I have known Shelduck to nest on precipitous 

 islands and rocks, in natural holes and crevices. 

 They do not invariably choose sand-hills, or always 

 lay their eggs in rabbit burrows. When a young 

 brood is hatched out in places where the old bird 

 cannot lead them down to the water by reason of 

 cliffs or steep banks, she will carry them. I have 

 seen from ten to twelve of the young ducklings 

 climb up on the mother's back, each little one 

 holding a feather in its tiny bill, and thus carried by 

 the parent to the safety of the sea. 



A much rarer species, seldom met with in a wild 

 state in the British Islands, is the RUDDY Si IK I.- 

 DRAKE (Tadorna r.utila\ One in Mr. Nelligan's 

 collection at Tralee, shown me by that gentleman, 

 is a young male, and was shot at Tralee, August 

 i 7th, 1869. The only other specimens obtained in 

 Ireland, so far as I know, were shot, one in county 

 Wicklow in 1847, and now in the Natural History 

 Museum, Kildare Street, Dublin, and another, in 

 the same collection, obtained more recently from 

 county Waterford. A fourth Irish specimen of the 

 Ruddy Sheldrake is preserved in the museum at 

 Trinity College. 



It is most probable that all these may have 

 escaped from some private waters where " orna- 

 mental waterfowl " are kept. 



