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and usually, during the breeding-season, on some of the islands close to the coast. It is, as a 

 rule, a somewhat shy and cautious bird, except in places where it is carefully protected ; and 

 there it becomes so tame that it is almost in a state of semidomestication. It is very sociable, 

 seldom seen alone, and usually collects together in colonies for the purposes of nidification. 

 Sometimes, however, during the pairing-season, the males will fight for the possession of the 

 females ; but otherwise they dwell together in such amity that several pairs will inhabit portions 

 of the same burrow. The call-note of the male bird is a deep korr, Jcorr ; but the female utters 

 a loud quacking sound, like that of many other Ducks. 



The food of this Duck consists of vegetable matter with some small admixture of insects, 

 small crustaceans, and worms ; and Naumann states that it will sometimes eat small fish and fish- 

 spawn. It appears to feed chiefly near the shore in shallow water, frequently reaching down 

 with upturned body, like many of the freshwater Ducks ; and it also frequents places left almost 

 bare by the receding tide, where it collects its food amongst what is left by the water as it ebbs. 

 In confinement it will readily feed on grain of various kinds, cooked potatoes, bread, turnips, &c. 

 Mr. Collett writes to me as follows : — " In the stomachs of males shot on Jsederen I found : — 

 in one almost exclusively the fragments of plants (stems of Graminese) and a quantity of gravel ; 

 in another, seeds and vegetable matter, fragments of a Carabus nitens, and the larvae of Eristalis." 

 And Thompson states, " On examination of the gizzards of nine birds killed in Belfast Bay, 

 Strangford Lough, and Dundrum Bay, in winter weather of all kinds, and in the months of 

 March, April, and July, I found them all to contain a number of minute univalve shells, in 

 addition to which was only sand or gravel. A few of them from the two first-named localities 

 were entirely filled with Palu&ina muriatica, Lam., a most abundant species. Although they 

 exhibited 'shell-fish' only, food of various kinds, vegetable and animal, was abundant where 

 they were obtained. The tenth individual, shot in Belfast Bay in February 1849, during mild 

 weather, had its stomach wholly filled with minute mollusca — Montacuta purpurea (in profusion), 

 Skenea depressa, and Paludina muriatica (few of these). Its crop was full of the two former 

 species, chiefly of very small Skenece, it alone containing not less than nine thousand of these 

 shell-fish. The stomach produced still more, so that 20,000 of these minute mollusca were 

 estimated to be in the bird at the same time. To give an idea of their size, the Skenea is about 

 that of clover-seed, or one eighteenth of an inch in diameter; the Montacuta, when large, is 

 one twelfth of an inch broad. The bird was very fat, as might be expected from such nutritious 

 diet — the same on which the grey mullet (Mugil chelo) attains a great size in this bay." 



The present species is somewhat peculiar in its nesting-habits; for it always deposits its 

 eggs in a burrow or hole, most frequently in a rabbit-burrow, but sometimes in that of a fox or 

 a badger ; and, curiously enough, it appears to inhabit the burrow whilst it is tenanted by its 

 original owner, the Duck and the fox or badger appearing to dwell together in amity. Von 

 Negelein, as quoted by Naumann, vouches for the accuracy of these statements as to the Shel- 

 drake inhabiting the same hole as the fox and the badger; and Bekker and Lembke also cite 

 similar instances. In some localities, as, for instance, on the island of Sylt, where this Duck is 

 in a state of semidomestication, artificial burrows are made by the peasants, and are tenanted by 

 the Sheldrake ; and Naumann (Naturg. Vog. Deutschl. xi. p. 562) gives a drawing of one of 

 these burrows with twelve nesting-places and only one entrance. Each of the nesting-places is 



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