ANATINiE. TADORNA. 
163 
each side of the hack, including the scapulars, and the pri- 
mary quills and coverts, which are black ; the outer second- 
aries green, some of the inner externally red, and the lower 
tail-coverts brownish-yellow. Female smaller, but similarly, 
though less brightly coloured, and without the fleshy knob on 
the forehead. 
Male, 24, 46, 13^-, 5, 2, lyf, 2-^-, T 5 2 * 
This very beautiful bird is permanently resident in Britain, 
and is sparingly met with along our coasts, in most places 
suitable to its habits, from the south of England to the Shet- 
land Islands on one side, and the northern Hebrides on the 
other. It seems to continue in pairs all the year round, al- 
though frequently in winter and spring large flocks may be 
seen. It feeds chiefly in wet pastures near the sea, in marshy 
places, and on wet sands. It walks with ease, and flies with 
speed, in the manner of the Mallard, with more rapid beats 
of the wings than the Geese. The nest is placed in a hole 
in the sand or pasture -ground, near the shore, and is lined 
with down. The eggs, from eight to twelve, are oval, smooth, 
glossy, thin-shelled, white, slightly tinged with red ; their 
length about two inches and nine-twelfths, their breadth an 
inch^and ten-twelfths. The young presently betake them- 
selves to the sea or marshes. 
Shieldrake. Skeldrake. Skelgoose. Skeeling Goose. 
Burrow Duck. St George’s Duck. Sly Goose. Bergander. 
Stockannet. 
Anas Tadorna, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 195. — Anas Tadorna, 
Lath. Ind. Grnith. ii. 854. — Anas Tadorna, Temm. Man. 
d’Ornith. ii. 833. — Tadorna Yulpanser, Burrow Shielduck, 
MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, v. 
244. Tadorna Casarca. Buddy Shielduck. 
Male twenty-three inches long, with the bill very slightly 
rearcuate, destitute of basal protuberance ; the wing with a 
blunt tubercle ; the tail of fourteen feathers ; the bill and 
feet black ; the head and upper half of the neck pale grey, 
the latter tinged with yellow ; a narrow collar of greenish- 
black ; the rest of the neck, and the upper and lower parts 
of the body light yellowish-red ; the hind part of the back 
and the tail greenish-black ; the wing-coverts white ; the pri- 
mary quills and coverts black, the secondary quills deep pur- 
plish-green. Female smaller, similarly coloured, but with- 
out grey on the head, it being pale yellow, and the dark coL 
lar wanting. 
