Colonel Hawker, in reference to their habits, says,, “ The
young. Shelldrakes, directly after being hatched in the rabbit-
burrows, are taken by. the parent birds to the* sea,* where they
may j^e; seen in what the boatman call trooplihof 'from thirty
to forty; but as the female, seldom hatches more than fourteen
eggs, it is clear that each flock is formed by two or three
broods. On their being approached, the old ones fly away,
-and leave the young to,shift for themselves.by dicing.,. They
may be, easily shot when they come up, but you can seldom
kill ntore than one. or’two at a time, as they always disperse
before you can get Very hear.them. ...
“ These birds show but lame sport with a gun, and are good
for. nothing when billed. But, in winter nights," they; often
give you a fine'shot on the mud, though they are so white
that you can seldom perceive thorn, even afloat, without a
good moon. Be prepared to fire direetly^you rise; as they,
being very-quick-sighted birds, wad .giv^you bdfe- little time
to present your gun. We had a great many Burrow Ducks
on our coast, Hampshire and Dorsetshire, .during the last
hard winter. They were the wildest of birds till half starved,
by the freezing of the shell-fish, and then they became the
tamest .of all wild-fowl.”
“ You may keep young Burrow Ducks for five or six
weeks, provided you give them crumbs of bread, and only
a little water three times a day. But if. you let ,fheni get
into the water, or eVen drink too much before they are full
grown, and fit to be turned out on your pond, you are almost
sure to kill them. This appears quite a paradox with birds
that, in their wild state, are always in. the water; but such
is the case.”
This bird is found on most of the sandy parts of the . coast
of Ireland, and in. Scotland as far as the Shetland Isles, but
is more common iir those of Orkney, where Dr. Patrick Neill
says u it has got the name of Sly Goose, from the arts which
the natives find it tfp 'employ to decoy them from the neighbourhood
of its n est: it frequently feigns lameness, and
waddles away with wing trailing on the ground, thus inducing.
^pursuit of itself, till, judging its young to be safe
/from discovery, it suddenly takes flight, and leaves the outwitted
Orcadian gaping with surprise.”
Mr. Damn tells" me this beautiful duck appears early in
May, in/great numbers on the Swedish coast," where they
breed; and that they are, found on the west coast of Norway,
as high as Drontheim, in,fsmall numbers.
I t is found both in the northern and western countries of
Europe, on the borders of the Seay' M. Temminck says it is
abundant in Holland, on the coasts df^France, and occasionally:
visits the rivers of ,Germany. M. Savi includes it in his
Birds of I ^ l y ; and Keith Abbot, Esq. sent the Zoological
Society specimen's from Trebizond. M. Temminck' says this
species is: found in Japan.
In the adult male the beak'his -vermilion; the irides
brown; the'whole of the head and -upper part of the neck
green, bounded by a collar of white, and below that a collar
of rich chestnut, which covers the upper part of the breast,
the space before the point of the wings, and the upper part
Of the back; the rest of the5 "back, the rump, and upper tail-
coverts white; scapulars and part of the tertials nearly black;
the longest tertials with the outer webs rich chestnut; point
of the wing and all the wing-coverts white ^ primaries very
dark brown ; the speculum of the secondaries green; tail-feathers
white, tipped with black; lower central line of the breast
and belly rich dark brown; sides, flanks, vent, and under tail-
coverts white ; legs, toes, and their membranes flesh colour.
Whole length twenty-four to twenty-six inches. From
the carpal joint to the end of the wing thirteen inches; the
second quill-feather the longest. The female is rather smaller
than the male, and not quite so bright in her colours.
VOL. III. L