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jetty black, and rich chestnut, while its head is of a rich dark 
metallic green. Its bill and feet are brilliant red, while the bill of 
the male has a basal knob of the same rich brilliancy. Its length is 
22 inches. 
The Sheld-Duck is a resident species, and it becoming less 
uncommon of recent years. The adjustment that nature makes for 
the preservation of species is shown by the nesting habit of this Duck 
with brilliant plumage, namely, to resort to rabbits' burrows. When 
in the open its colour oft reveals it to the prying eye, but in the dark 
seclusion of its underground home, which it enters and emerges from 
in the most careful fashion, it is not to be easily discovered. At a 
distance of some four or five feet from the entrance of the burrow the 
Sheld-Duck makes her nest of down, pulled from her own breast, 
and in this most exquisite of nests she lays from 12 to even 16 large 
creamy-coloured eggs. It is a most interesting sight to see the 
parent birds bring down their young brood from where they have 
been born to the water. It is a time of great anxiety, as the duck- 
lings are most defenceless, and the ingenuity and patience of both 
parents and young in overcoming their difficulties is veiy wonderful. 
The food of the Sheld-Duck consists of slugs, worms, and shell- 
fish, and is invariably obtained on or near the sea coast. This is 
one of the birds which has undoubtedly benefited by the Wild Bird 
Protection Act, and it is to be hoped its numbers will still continue 
to increase that its beauty may become more common round our 
shores . 
Flycatcher, Spetted. — This “ most familiar bird,” so lovingly 
written of by Gilbert White, is widely distributed and not uncommon. 
It is a summer migrant, and may be identified by its persistent habit 
of perching on the top of some favourite post, from which it ever and 
again flits out to hawk at a passing insect, returning to the post only 
to repeat its flight after a short interval. Save for this habit it is so 
unobtrusive as to attract but little notice ; its lack of song and 
inconspicuous colouring allowing it to pass unnoticed in many cases. 
The nest is placed in a variety of situations, the most favourite 
being possibly a recess in a tree trunk, where a branch has rotted out, 
or in the cleft where a branch springs from the main stem, though a 
clump of fern growing out from a wall or a hole in the wall itself are 
sites often selected. The eggs, four or five in number, are usually' 
of a pale green ground colour, prettily blotched with a light brown, 
though occasionally a clutch may be observed where the ground- 
colour is of decided green, with distinct spots of red-brown. 
Greenfinch. — The Greenfinch is resident in Britain throughout 
the year, and is not uncommon. It is a heavily built bird, about six 
inches long, and is possessed of a very thick and powerful bill, 
which it uses with effect upon the seeds on which it chiefly feeds, 
though, like most of our other small birds, it feeds its young chiefly 
upon insects. The general colour of the Greenfinch or Green Linnet, 
as it is sometimes named, is olive green, but this is relieved, particu- 
larly in the male bird, by, on wmg and tail, a light and brilliant 
y'ellow, making the bird when in flight quite brilliant. 
The favourite haunt of this species is the hedgerow, small coppice, 
and garden, where its feeble efforts at son£ are to be heard in the 
spring months. The nest is placed often in the hawthorn hedge, 
sometimes in small fir trees, but is also to be found in whins and ivy- 
covered walls, and it is not an unusual thing to find two or even 
three nests in comparatively close proximity. The eggs are four or 
five in number and of a pale greenish ground tint with small spots of 
reddish brown. In size they are just larger than those of the 
