remarks that the males do not appear to attach themselves to the females till the second year, when they
have acquired the adult plumage; and I have also observed this to be the case 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 o f Europe.
In the beginning o f 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, o f their return
from their equatorial or winter migration. The rabbit-burrows, with which the sand-hills o f the coast are
so often perforated, are the places that the Sheldrake usually selects for nidification; and in such o f 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 twelve to sixteen eggs, of a pure white, or with a
very faint tinge o f green, and o f 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 Anatida.
During this time the male keeps an attentive watch in the immediate vicinity o f his mate; and when 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 ed g e ; 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 progress 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 universally prevails throughout the feathered
race at this interesting period, adopt the same kind o f stratagems as the Partridge, wild Duck, &c., feigniug
lameness and inability of flight, in order to attract attention and divert the pursuit to themselves. As the
Sheldrake is much prized as an ornamental appendage to large pieces of water for its handsome form and
varied plumage, the inhabitants o f the coast are in the practice o f watching the old birds to their nests
during the early part o f the breeding-season, and digging up the eggs. These are placed under a hen or
tame Duck; but great care and attention is requisite in rearing the young, and it is seldom that more than
three or four survive from a hatching o f a dozen eggs. They soon become tolerably 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 return, in two or three instances, after an absence of many months . . . Upon the approach of spring,
the fleshy knob at the base of the upper mandible, which during the autumn and winter is scarcely perceptible,
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 o f any other bird to their mates. The
food o f the Sheldrake, in its wild state, consists o f marine vegetables, molluscous shell-fish, insects, &c.;
but when domesticated thrives well upon grain, and indeed upon the usual fare of poultry.”
“ On examination of the gizzards o f nine birds killed in Belfast Bay, Strangford Lough, and Dundrum Bay,
in winter weather o f 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 o f these, from the
two first-mentioned localities, were entirely filled with Paludina muriatica, 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 muriatica. Its
crop was full of the two former species, chiefly of very small Skenece, it alone containing not less than 9000
of these shell-fish ; the stomach produced still more, so that 20,000 o f these minute mollusca were estimated
to be in the bird at the same time. The Skenea is about the size o f clover-seed, or one-eighteenth o f an
inch in diameter; the Montacuta, when large, is one-twelfth o f an inch broad. The bird was very fat, as
might be expected from such nutritious diet, the same on which the Grey Mullet (M ugil chelo) attains a
great size in this bay/’
Prince Frederick, of Holstein, tells me that in his country the Sheldrakes habitually lay their eggs in
the earth-burrows o f the foxes, with which they live in harmony—but will not go into the holes of the
badger, as that animal will eat their e g g s ; and hence, I suppose, has arisen the specific term Vulpanser,
and the trivial name o f Fox-Duck or Fox-Goose, sometimes given to this bird.
The Plate represents a male and a group of young, o f the size o f life.