STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SHELDRAKE 191 



the dyke you are no longer in a silent land with 

 fragrance as its principal charm — you are in the 

 midst of a perpetual flow and rush of sound. You 

 may sit or lie there on the green bank by the hour 

 and it will not cease ; and so sweet and beautiful 

 is it, that after a day spent in rambling in such a 

 place with these delicate spring delights, on return- 

 ing to the woods and fields and homesteads the 

 songs of thrush and blackbird sound in the ear as 

 loud and coarse as the cackling of fowls and geese. 



It is in this district, from Brean Down westwards 

 along the coast to Dunster, that I have been best 

 able to observe and enjoy the beautiful sheldrake 

 — almost the only large bird which is now permitted 

 to exist in Somerset. 



The sheldrake of the British Islands, called the 

 common sheldrake (or sheld-duck) in the natural 

 history books, for no good reason, since there is but 

 one, is now becoming common enough as an orna- 

 mental waterfowl. It is to be seen in so many 

 parks and private grounds all over the country 

 that the sight of it in its conspicuous plumage must 

 be pretty familiar to people generally. And many 

 of those who know it best as a tame bird would, 

 perhaps, say that the descriptive epithets of strange 

 and beautiful do not exactly fit it. They would 



