File:Birds of Britain (1907) (14568780298).jpg

Identifier: birdsofbritain00bonh (find matches)
Title: Birds of Britain
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Bonhote, J. Lewis (John Lewis), 1875-1922 Dresser, Henry Eeles, 1838-1915
Subjects: Birds -- Great Britain
Publisher: London, A. and C. Black
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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parts. Speculum green.The rest of the plumage is pure white. Legs flesh pink;bill crimson. The sexes are alike, but the female is smallerand duller. The male has a crimson knob at the base of hisbill which swells up considerably during the breeding season. The young bird lacks the chestnut band, the head andneck are dull brownish black, the scapulars greyish brown,and in its first autumn it assumes a plumage similar to theadult female, but duller. Length 25 in. ; wing 13 in.Both sexes assume in July a much duller plumage, some-what resembling that of the young in their first winter. THE RUDDY SHELD-DUCK Tadorna casarca (Linnaeus) The Euddy Sheld-Duck is a South-eastern Europeanspecies, breeding on the shores of the Levant and throughoutNorthern Africa, but it is rare on the north shores of theMediterranean west of the Adriatic. It has several timesbeen noted as a straggler to England, and in 1892 manyflocks appeared in different parts of the country. 240 SHELU-DUCK Tadorn a co7-tntta
Text Appearing After Image:
The Ruddy Sheld-Duck The general colour is a deep orange brown, the headbeing rather lighter. The male has a narrow black collarduring the nesting season. The female is much paler onthe head, the forehead, lores, and a ring round the eye beingnearly white. Length 25 in.; wing 14-5 in. THE MALLARD OR WILD DUCK Anas boschas, Linnaeus This is at once our commonest and most beautiful Duck.Owing to drainage of fen-lands and higher cultivation it is,perhaps, not so abundant as formerly, yet there are fewmarshes or low-lying lands of any extent in our islands,which do not afford a home to a few pairs of this species. It feeds chiefly by night on worms, aquatic insects,water weeds, and grain, and prefers ditches overgrown withweeds or shallow ponds to open stretches of deep water.Early in March it chooses a nesting site, usually on theground and at no great distance from water, but exceptionallyit has been known to nest in trees, faggots, stacks, andother elevated places, l^o nest is formed,

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