observes:- 66 I have remarked the same instinct in the female shelldrakes when sitting on their eggs. Although several feet underground, they know to a moment when the tide has sufficiently ebbed; and then, and only then, do they leave their nest to snatch a hasty meal on the cockles, &c., which they find on the sands."*

Belfast Bay. So soon as the young are able to accompany their parents in their flight, shelldrakes are seen here. According to ten years' observation by a wild-fowl shooter, reported to me in September 1838, they appear regularly in August. In that year, one was seen at the end of the third week; about the last day of the month, ten; and two or three days afterwards three more joined the party: they frequented one part of the Antrim shore, about a mile from the town, for about a week, and a limited portion of the opposite coast for a similar period ;-although very wild, several of them were killed. On the 12th of August, 1844, two young birds of the year were shot. Shelldrakes habitually approach very near the beach. They are observed throughout the winter months, and occasionally until March. An old shooter has often remarked them in the bay in spring, when the other Anatidae were chiefly gone. A small flock of five, of which two or three were adult males, was seen so late as the 1st of May, in 1849. They very rarely appear here in large numbers; but after severe frost and snow, about the end of February 1838, a flock consisting of not less than from seventy to eighty birds appeared; and afterwards, in similar weather, that same season, not less than 200 were remarked together. At the beginning of February 1842, a flock of fully one hundred was seen within a mile and half of the town on this occasion, as well as for some time before and afterwards, the weather was mild. All such flocks are, I consider, on migration to their breeding quarters in more northern latitudes. Such, too, is Mr. Selby's opinion with regard to still larger flocks which visit the Northumbrian coast in early spring.†

* Tour in Sutherland,' vol. ii. p. 53.

Vol. ii. p. 290.

69

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 July, I found them all to contain a number of minute univalve shells, in addition to which was only sand or gravel. A few of them from the two first-named localities were entirely filled with Paludina muriatica, Lam., a most abundant species. Although they exhibited “shell-fish" only, food of various kinds-vegetable and animal—was abundant where they were obtained. 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 Paludina muriatica (few of these). Its crop was full of the two former species, chiefly of very small Skenea; it alone containing not less than nine thousand of these shell-fish. The stomach produced still more, so that 20,000 of these minute mollusca were estimated to be in the bird at the same time.† To give an idea of their size, the Skenea is about that of clover-seed, or one-eighteenth of an inch in diameter; the Montacuta, when large, is one-twelfth of an inch broad. The bird was very fat, as might be expected from such nutritious diet; the same on which the grey mullet (Mugil chelo) attains a great size in this bay.

From the evident partiality of the species for such food, I had naturally imagined that it was originally called Shell-drake, and that Shiel-drake would turn out to be an unmeaning corruption. The latter term is often quoted from Willughby, though "Sheldrake" is his orthography; ‡ and he tells us that “they are called Sheldrakes because they are particoloured" (p. 363). Mr. Yarrell suggests that "the term Shield-drake may have had its origin in the frequent use made of this bird in heraldry.§ Willughby's may, however, be the correct version, when we think of the red-breasted merganser and the goosander, birds

* Mya purpurea, Mont.

+ Five hundred were reckoned by Mr. Darragh (Curator of the Belfast Museum) and myself, and the remainder carefully divided into portions of similar size.

with pied plumage like that under consideration, often bearing the name of shell-duck.

On all quarters of the coast this bird is at least occasionally met with,—is "in considerable numbers in Dingle Bay," and on the shores of Connemara, as well as elsewhere ;-it is not found in North America. Very rarely is it killed in a wild state on fresh water. It is generally considered to be bad as food; but a person of my acquaintance considers the flesh of the young bird, when just able to fly well, very good, while that of the old he regards as strong and having a heavy disagreeable smell.

Males of this species vary much in size, increasing apparently until they attain the fullest maturity. The old birds of this sex are always, from their superior bulk to the others, singled out and fired at amidst a flock, by the wild-fowl shooters in Belfast Bay;-they are sometimes as large as brent geese. The finest I have seen was one of seven birds killed here at a shot from a flock of eight. The knob at the base of the upper mandible, which is hard in winter, increases very much in spring, becoming then soft, fleshy, and filled with oily matter: at this season it is as figured by Bewick.

A fine male shelldrake kept for some years at the Falls near Belfast, was extremely attractive, owing to his brilliant plumage, light graceful walk, and rapid flight. He became so domestic as never to leave the place, though his wings were freely used in flying about it. He would take food from a person's hand, was a very bold bird, and could even master the tame swans. This he managed by alighting on their backs and buffeting them with his wings. The swans when so attacked did not attempt to retaliate, but invariably made the best of their way from the tormentor. The peculiar and quick whistling call of this bird, heard at a considerable distance, was frequently uttered. He paired with the common duck, for two or three years successively, producing a beautiful progeny. Several others which were kept here never bred, either with their own species or with the common duck,

* An immature male was shot on the river near Clonmel, January 19th, 1841.

though the males-like those mentioned by Montagu-were bold and gallant in spring, and manifested every disposition to do so. The manners of the species on such occasions are well described by Mr. Selby, who gives a full and excellent account of the bird generally. Mr. Yarrell offers a good hint to persons wishing to breed them, mentioning the method successfully adopted at the Zoological Garden, Regent's Park, London (p. 143). Colonel Hawker, too, in his 'Instructions to Young Sportsmen,' supplies some information on this bird, which he calls burrough duck, and tells the way to keep the young.*

One pair of shell-ducks out of several lately kept by Mr. Trumbull of Beechwood, Malahide, bred three years successively. The first year there were eight young, all of which were brought to maturity; the next, the whole brood was carried off the night after being hatched; the third, they were brought to as successful an issue as in the first year. The owner of these birds, observing the old ones apparently looking about for a breeding-place in a yard, made a burrow there, like that of a rabbit, and in it the nest was formed each year.†

I was told in Islay (January 1849), that the shelldrake is common and breeds there; but leaves the island (or part known to my informant) in autumn, and returns again about the last week of December. The oystercatcher is said to do the same.

Is a regular winter visitant to some parts of Ireland. My notes bear witness to its presence in different localities on the Down coast, in three successive winters-1835-36-37—and again in 1839. Birds of all ages occur in fair proportion. Two, which I obtained, were killed in Belfast Bay in the winter of † Mr. T. W. Warren.

* The matter is all copied into Yarrell's work.

1829-30, but the species is not procured here regularly every season. One, shot on a pond of fresh-water near Mount Stewart, county of Down, in the middle of August 1833, came into my possession, and on the 11th of September, the same year, I saw a recently killed bird which was purchased in the inland town of Lisburn. One was shot on the fresh-water dam at Beers' Bridge, near Belfast, on the 21st of October, 1844. But nearly all the shovellers seen in this town are killed in the bay. Four, shot here, from a flock of seven, on December 15th, 1847, came under my notice immediately afterwards.* A practised wild-fowl shooter imagined, from their manner of feeding, that they were wild ducks. They did not attempt to dive until wounded and endeavouring to escape, and then dived but badly. Two of them were in the beautiful plumage of the adult male. In weight, they varied from 12 to 15 ounces, and were all in very fine condition, so much so, that I measured the thickness of fat on one of them, and found it to be an inch on the breast. The stomachs of the five contained minute pebbles only. Yarrell describes the adult male as having the bill lead-coloured, but this organ in both birds is wholly-above and below-of a shining black; a third male, all but adult (the next spring moult would have made him so), has the bill blackish, with a reddish-brown tinge apparent, when viewed with the light upon it; the bill of the fourth, a female, is dusky-black with a reddish-brown tinge. Tarsi and toes of all four are reddish-orange, those of the female palest. Irides of all are dark, golden-yellow; those of the female the least pure in colour.

The latest period of the spring in which this species has come under my notice here, was on the 3rd of April, 1849. A splendid adult male, then shot, was accompanied by another in similar plumage, which was wounded. The specimen was 18 oz. in weight; its length 19 inches; wing, from carpus to end of quills, 9 inches; first quill of each wing longest, and not the second, as mentioned by Yarrell ;-in another specimen examined, the second is the longest in the wing: the character of comparative length,

* A couple were on sale in Belfast market about three weeks previously.