Identifier: handbookguidetob00live (find matches)
Title: Handbook and guide to the British birds on exhibition in the Lord Derby Natural History Museum, Liverpool
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Liverpool Museum (Liverpool, England)
Subjects: Liverpool Museum (Liverpool, England) Birds
Publisher: Liverpool, C. Tinling
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
es ormorasses, is composed of dry grass and leaves, lined with blackishdown. Eight to fourteen creamy white or pale buff eggs (see BritishBird Egg Cabinet, drawer 13) are laid early in May. Case 195. MALLARD or WILD DUCK (Anas boscas).Local name: Mere Duck. This species was formerly more numerous in the BritishIslands than at present. A certain number still remain tobreed, but they are comparatively few in proportion to thenumber of winter visitors. Several hundred are taken every yearin the large decoy at Hale. The food consists mainly of grainor seeds, worms, slugs and insects. The Mallard is an earlybreeder, and the nest, composed of grass, lined with down, is usuallyplaced on the ground, near the margin of rivers or lakes, but often at aconsiderable distance from water. The eggs are a dull greenish greycolour (see British Bird Egg Cabinet, drawer 11), and the male doesnot participate in the incubation. The Mallard is the undoubtedorigin of the many varieties of our domestic ducks.
Text Appearing After Image:
33 Case 196. SHELD-DUCK (Tadoma comuta).Local name : Barrow Duck. A resident species not uncommon on suitable parts of tlie coast ofGreat Britain and Ireland. Low sand-hills and mud flats are itsfavourite haunts, where small molluscs, crustaceans, marine insects andother kinds of food are plentiful. In Lancashire, Formby sand-hills,the warrens near the Ribble and Walney Island are some of the nestingsites. Although the plumage is very similar in both sexes, the coloursof the male are brighter and more defined. The nest is generallyplaced inside a rabbit burrow some feet from the entrance, and is madeof bents with a thick lining of down from the breast of the female.Seven to twelve cream-coloured eggs (see British Bird Egg Cabinet,drawer 11) are laid in May, and although the drake takes no part inincubation, he remains in the vicinity of the nest. Case 197. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER (Mergus serrator). A winter visitor in considerable numbers to the larger estuaries inEngland and Wales, bu

Note About Images