ANATID^. 475 



it also walks and runs more easily upon land, resem- 

 bling in both particulars the Gull rather than the 

 Duck. 



The Burrow Duck becomes very tame and breeds 

 readily in confinement, provided it can find a suitable 

 place ; but, notwithstanding its tameness, it has a 

 wandering disposition, and if not very carefully 

 pinioned will almost to a certainty leave its quarters 

 in the spring. I have known two or three broods 

 bred up in these ponds, and the young ones were so 

 tame that they would eat out of one's hand ; it was 

 consequently not thought necessary to pinion them 

 at all; but in their first spring they all went off, 

 probably to their native places, in the mud and sand 

 of the Bristol Channel : perhaps these escapes may 

 account for occasional visits paid me, especially in 

 the spring, by a few pairs of apparently wild Burrow 

 Ducks ; these, however, never stay more than a few 

 days at a time, and always do their best to decoy 

 away any pinioned ones there may be in the pond. 



The nest of the Burrow Duck is usually placed in 

 a rabbit-hole at some considerable distance from the 

 entrance ; but if a convenient hole cannot be found, 

 the nest is occasionally placed in a thick bramble or 

 furze-bush, always in the very thickest part, a 

 regular creep being made, through which the bird 

 approaches her nest, and which the eager birds- 

 nester will have to follow up for some distance before 

 he will be able to reach the eggs : the nest itself is . 



