THE SHOVELLEll. 71 



though the males — like those mentioned by Montagu — were bold 

 and gallant in spring, and manifested every disposition to do so. 

 The manners of the species on such occasions are well described by 

 Mr. Selby, who gives a full and excellent account of the bird 

 generally. Mr. Yarrell offers a good hint to persons wishing to 

 breed them, mentioning the method successfully adopted at the 

 Zoological Garden, Regent^s Park, London (p. 143). Colonel 

 Hawker, too, in his ' Instructions to Young Sportsmen,' supplies 

 some information on this buxl, which he calls burrough duck, and 

 tells the way to keep the young."^ 



One pair of shell-ducks out of several lately kept by Mr. Trum- 

 bull of Beechwood, Malahide, bred three years successively. The 

 first year there were eight young, all of which were brought to 

 maturity ; the next, the whole brood was carried off the night 

 after being hatched ; the third, they were brought to as successful 

 an issue as in the first year. The owner of these birds, observing 

 the old ones apparently looking about for a breeding-place in a 

 yard, made a burrow there, like that of a rabbit, and in it the nest 

 was formed each year.f 



I was told in Islay (January 1849), that the shelldrake is com- 

 mon and breeds there ; but leaves the island (or part known to 

 my informant) in autumn, and returns again about the last week 

 of December. The oystercatcher is said to do the same. 



THE SHOVELLER. 



Blue-winged Shoveller. 



Spathulea clypeata^ Linn, (sp.) 

 Anas „ „ 



Is a regular winter visitant to some parts, of Ireland. 



My notes bear witness to its presence in different localities on 

 the Down coast, in three successive winters — 1835-36-37 — and 

 again in 1839. Birds of all ages occm- in fair proportion. Two, 

 which I obtained, were killed in Belfast Bay in the winter of 



* The matter is all copied into YarrelFs work. f Mr. T. W. Warren. 



