remarks that the males do not appear to attaeh themselves to the females till the second year, when they 
have acquired the adidt ])himage; and I have also observed this to he the ease on the Northumbrian coast, 
where these birds are common upon such parts as present a barrier of sand-hills, the chosen breeding resort 
of this species. In addition, however, to those that reside permanently on our shores, we are visited by 
considerable numbers during’ their periodical flights to and from the more northern countries of Europe. 
In the beginning of March I have sometimes seen hundreds together upon a favourite locality, where they 
have continued for a few days, and then departed for higher latitudes, this being the time of their return 
from their equatorial or winter migration. The rabbit-burrows, with wdiich the sand-hills of the coast are 
so often perforated, are the places that the Sheldrake usually selects for nidification ; and in such of these 
as have been deserted by the original inhabitants, the females form their nests of bent-grass and other dry 
vegetable materials, sometimes as far as ten or twelve feet from the entrance, lining them with fine soft 
down plucked from their own breasts. They lay from tw'elve to sixteen eggs, of a pure white, or with a 
very fixint tinge of green, and of an oval form, being equally rounded at both ends. These are incubated 
for thirty days before the exclusion of the young, this being the period common to most of the Anatidce. 
During this time the male keeps an attentive watch in the immediate vicinity of his mate; and wdien hunger 
calls her from her charge, he instantly takes her place and covers the eggs till her return. As soon as the 
young are hatched, they are conducted, or, as more frequently happens, carried in the bill by the parents to 
the water’s edge ; and upon this their native element they immediately launch, seldom quitting it till fully 
fledged and well able to fly. Bewick observes, that if the family in their progi’ess from the nest to the sea 
should happen to be interrupted by an intruder, the young ones seek the first shelter, and squat close down, 
whilst the parents, directed by the instinctive feeling that so univei'sally prevails throughout the feathered 
race at this interesting period, adopt the same kind of stratagems as the Partridge, wild Duck, &c., feigning 
lameness and inability of flight, in order to attract attention and divert the pursuit to themselves. As the 
Sheldrake is much jxrized as an ornamental appendage to large pieces of water for its handsome form and 
varied plumage, the inhabitants of the coast are in the practice of watching the old birds to their nests 
during the early pai-t of the breeding-season, and digging up the eggs. These are placed under a hen or 
tame Duck ; hut great care and attention is requisite in rearing the young, and it is seldom that more than 
three or four survive from a hatching of a dozen eggs. They soon become tolei*ably tame and answer to the 
call of the person who feeds them ; when fully fledged, however, being very active birds, they are apt to 
stray away, and, if left with their pinions unmutilated, generally in time fly entirely off, though I have known 
them I’eturn, in two or three instances, after an absence of many months . . . Upon theappi'oach of spring, 
the fleshy knob at the base of the upper mandible, which during the autumn and winter is scarcely per- 
ceptible, begins to swell and acquire a beautiful crimson hue, and at its full development is nearly as large 
as a marble. At this season, also, the males pay particular court to the females, erecting themselves and 
uttering a shrill whistling note, repeated with great quickness, and attended with a frequent movement of 
the head ; they are also very jealous and irascible at the approach of any other bird to their mates. The 
food of the Sheldrake, in its wild state, consists of marine vegetables, molluscous shell-fish, insects, &;c. ; 
but when domesticated thrives w'ell upon grain, and indeed upon the usual fare of poultry.” 
“ On examination of the gizzards of nine birds killed in Belfast Bay, Strangford Lough, and Dundrum Bay, 
in winter weather of all kinds, and in the months of March, April, and May,” says Thompson, “ I found 
them all to contain a number of minute univalve shells, with some sand or gravel. A few of these, from the 
two first-mentioned localities, were entirely filled with Paludina miiriatica, a most abundant species. The 
tenth individual, shot in Belfast Bay, in February 1849, during mild weather, had its stomach wholly filled 
with minute mollusca, Montacuta purpurea, in profusion, Skenea depressa, and a few Paludina niimatica. Its 
crop was full of the two former species, chiefly of very small SkenecB, it alone containing not less than 9000 
of these shell-fish ; the stomach produced still moi'e, so that 20,000 of these minute mollusca were estimated 
to be in the bird at the same time. The Skenea is about the size of clover-seed, or one-eighteenth of an 
inch in diameter ; the Montacuta, when large, is one-twelfth of an inch broad. The bird xvas very fat, as 
might be expected from such nutritious diet, the same on which the Grey Mullet {I\Iugil chelo') attains a 
great size in this bay.” 
Prince Frederick, of Holstein, tells me that in his counti-y the Sheldrakes habitually lay their eggs in 
the earth -huri’ow's of the foxes, with which they live in harmony — hut will not go into the holes of the 
badger, as that animal will eat their eggs; and hence, I suppose, has arisen the specific term Fulpanser, 
and the tidvial name of Fox-Duck or Fox-Goose, sometimes given to this bird. 
I’lic Plate represents a male and a group of young, of the size of life. 
