WILD FOWL 
generally distributed, being abundant in suitable localities along the 
coasts, but it is less numerous in the south of England. In the Shetland 
Islands it is scarce, and it seems doubtful if it has ever bred there. On 
the east coast of Scotland it is especially plentiful, its numbers being 
largely increased in winter by flocks from the Continent. 
In Western Europe the sheld-duck is almost exclusively a marine species, 
though it frequently visits the small lochs near the coast. 
Nest and eggs . — ^The nest, generally to be found among sand-hills or 
near the shore, is placed in a rabbit -burrow at a distance varying from 
a few feet to several yards from the entrance. Sometimes the burrow is 
excavated by the birds themselves. The nest is made of dry bents, grass, 
etc., thickly lined with down from the breast of the female. From seven 
to twelve cream-coloured eggs, measuring about 2 '75 by 19 inches, are 
laid in May, and incubation lasts from twenty-eight to thirty days. The 
male takes no part in hatching the eggs, but remains in the neighbourhood 
in company with other drakes of his kind. 
This species is commonly known as the “burrow -duck,” on account of 
its curious nesting-habits. The flesh is dark in colour, and has an un- 
pleasant flavour. The food consists of small molluscs, crustaceans, marine 
insects, and sea -weed, which are mostly picked up between the tides. 
RUDDY SHELD-DUCK 
TADORNA CASARCA 
(Plate XXVlll, Fig. 2) 
Tadorna rutila, Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 358 (1837). 
Tadorna casarca. Dresser, Birds Europe, vi, p. 461, pi. 421 (1875) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. 
Birds, part xx, pi. (1891) ; Saunders, III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 421 (1899) ; Ogilvie, Zoologist, 
p. 392 (1892). 
Casarca rutila, Hume & Marshall, Game Birds Ind., iii, p. 123, pi. 17 (1880) ; Salvador!, 
Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvii, p. 177 (1895). 
DULT male. — ^Head, cheeks and chin whitish-buff, shading 
into orange -brown at the base of the neck, which is 
/ surrounded by a narrow, somewhat ill -defined black 
ring during part of the year; back, scapulars, breast 
g and underparts orange -brown or foxy -red, chestnut 
^ bL. on the belly and under tail -coverts ; lower back and 
rump fulvous and greyish, vermiculated with blackish ; upper tail-coverts, 
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