COMMON SHELDRAKE 223 



dens possessed a pair that had been purchased in 1860, but in general from three to 

 five years is the ordinary length of life in confinement. 



The species is not one that is easily bred in captivity, and it will never do so until 

 two years of age. It nests later in the season than most other ducks. In former 

 years it was bred quite regularly in the London Gardens, having reproduced seven 

 times between 1835 and 1848 (P. L. Sclater, 1880). In recent years the Gardens 

 have been far less successful, though in other places young have been hatched and 

 reared. It has never reproduced at the Berlin Gardens, though a few eggs were laid. 

 A few were raised in the Dresden Gardens (Reeker, Miinster Jahr. Prov. Wiss., 

 1909, p. 46). Bodinus (1862), the former director of the Zoological Gardens at 

 Cologne, has given detailed directions about rearing the young. They can, he says, 

 be easily reared if a small pond with plenty of insect life is provided. The food should 

 be vegetable, with ant larvae, water lentils, chopped lettuce, etc. If fed on barley 

 alone they contract the eye-disease mentioned above. Some even become blind in 

 spite of all that can be done in varying the diet (Niemeyer, Zool. Garten, vol. 9, 

 p. 71, 1868). They seldom reproduce on small ponds, and require a larger sheet of 

 water with suitable burrows for nesting sites. 



Young birds only a few days old have been noted stamping about on the grass in 

 imitation of the means employed by older birds to entice shell-fish from their holes. 

 They keep rather aloof from other species, but, though of a dominant disposition, are 

 not so pugnacious as their relatives, the Sheldrakes of New Zealand and South 

 Africa. If kept with poultry they soon lord it over the whole barnyard. W. Thomp- 

 son (1851) speaks of one bird which completely mastered some tame swans, alight- 

 ing on their backs and buffeting them with its wings. In another case a male Shel- 

 drake is reported to have thrashed a game-cock. 



No wild hybrids have been described, to my knowledge, but in confinement the 

 following crosses have been successful: 



(Leverkiihn, 1890) 



male Cairina mosckata X female Tadorna tadorna 



male Tadorna tadorna X female Cairina moschata 



male Tadorna tadorna X female Casarca ferruginea 



male Tadorna tadorna X female Anas boschas 



male Tadorna tadorna X female Anser cinereus 



male Tadorna tadorna X female Alopochen agyptiacus 1 /„ . , iQi-n 



male Tadorna tadorna X female Casarca tadornoides ) 



male Tadorna tadorna X female Casarca cana (Sclater, 1859) 



male Nyroca ferina X female Tadorna tadorna (L. T. C, London Field, Dec. 30, 1911) 



