476 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



made of a few bents of grass and other dry vege- 

 tables, and lined with down picked from the bird 

 herself. 



The food of the Burrow Duck consists of sea- 

 weed, small fish and their spawn, small shell-fish, 

 sand- hoppers, sea- worms and marine insects. Yar- 

 rell says he has found the stomach filled with mi- 

 nute bivalve and univalve Mollusca, as though the 

 bird sought for no other food : in confinement they 

 will eat barley and other grain, and potatoes when 

 dressed ; and I have seen them pick the meat very 

 clean off the bones given to the Gulls, who have 

 been obliged to stand by and watch the proceedings, 

 for, improbable as it may seem, the Burrow Ducks 

 are the masters. 



This Duck, when looked at either amongst orna- 

 mental wild-fowl in a pond or viewed in its natural 

 state, is one of (if not quite) the most beautiful of 

 our British Ducks. In the male bird the beak and 

 a small knob immediately below the forehead are the 

 brightest scarlet ; the irides brown ; the head and 

 the upper part of the neck all round velvet-black, 

 shot in some lights with sap-green ; the lower part 

 of the neck all round and the upper part of the breast 

 are pure white ; below this is a broadish band all 

 round of lich bay; the back, rump and tail-coverts 

 are pure white ; the scapulars black ; the wing- 

 coverts white ; the primary quills black ; the specu- 

 lum or beauty spot on the secondary quills g'ossy 



