COMMON SHEILDRAKE. 
103 
They are generally distributed, in Britain wherever 
suitable localities occur, and range to the very north 
of Scotland and to Orkney. On the shores of Europe 
they also appear from Sweden to Italy ; out of Eu- 
rope, on the authority of Temminck, they are found 
in Japan. They are easily kept in confinement where 
they have access to water, and form a very handsome 
ornament, but they do not breed freely under re- 
straint ; perhaps the want of a suitable cover or re- 
treat may have some effect in preventing this, for we 
have not generally seen any place provided where 
they could form a nest, as among rocks or burrows. 
The nests we have seen in an artificial state were 
placed under some bushes or herbage, and formed 
with the down from the bird like that of a tame 
duck when breeding away from the poultry-yard. 
Head and neck glossy blackish green ; lower part 
of neck and upper breast pure white, succeeded by 
a broad pectoral and narrow dorsal band of pale 
chestnut- red ; centre of back, rump, tail, shoulders, 
lesser wing-covers, sides and thighs, pure white ; 
scapulars, quills, and tip of the tail, black ; tcrtials 
white, outer webs broadly edged with chestnut, se- 
parated from the white by a dark line shading into 
both colours; centre of the belly and running through 
the chestnut band, black ; vent and under tail-covers 
pale yellowish red. The young birds have not the 
bright colouring or decided markings of the old ; the 
chestnut colours are more of a blackish brown, and 
the white is clouded with grey. The glossy black 
of the head and neck is also wanting ; the fore part 
