RUDDY SHELLDRAKE. SHELLDRAKE. 197 



lieved to nestle in holes of trees, or burrows of animals, where 

 it lays eight or nine white eggs. 

 Habitat Asia. 



SPECIES 189. THE SHELLDRAKE. 



Tadorna vulpanser. Flem. 

 Canard tadorne. Temm. 

 Bardrake. Burrow Duck. 



THIS showy and elegantly-marked species, with its bold, de- 

 cided colours of bright green, orange, and unsullied white, 

 all chastely disposed, is, perhaps, the most beautiful in appear- 

 ance of our native Anatidse ; and is rendered peculiarly in- 

 teresting to the ornithologist, from the fact of its being one 

 of the few birds of the family to which it belongs that is 

 indigenous, and found during all seasons around our shores, 

 on our eastern coast, however, it is a species sparingly dis- 

 tributed, and very rarely obtained, either by the taxidermists 

 of the city, or by the hawkers, who eagerly watch for its oc- 

 currence in the markets. 



At one time more plentiful in its distribution, the sand- 

 hills between Howth and Lusk were known to be tenanted 

 during the season by these birds for the purposes of nidifica- 

 tion. In a conversation with an old peasant, who resided in the 

 village of Portrane (and to whom the birds were well known), 

 he described them as breeding in small parties from two to a 

 dozen along the sand-hills, in suitable situations, and that it 

 was no unusual occurrence for the "boys" (i.e. men) to appoint 

 Easter Monday for the purpose of digging out from the 

 burrows the eggs, or, in some instances, the parent birds, 

 whose escape had been prevented, by the entrance of the 

 burrow being closed with hay and sand placed there the pre- 

 ceding day ; as late as 1842, a nest was obtained containing 

 seven eggs, all of which my informant described as being suc- 

 cessfully hatched and reared under a domestic duck, and 

 disposed of to admirers in Dublin for good prices. 



During winter the shelldrake collects in small flocks, and 

 seldom ventures inland, but frequents the open sea or estuaries 

 along the coast. On the approach of spring they break up 

 into pairs, and seek the sand-hills bordering the sea, frequented 

 by rabbits, where their burrows, in the soft sandy situations 

 chosen by them, are nearly eight or nine feet in depth, and 

 where they succeed in rearing a numerous brood in this unu- 

 sual site. 



