SHELD-DRAKE 835 



one of the most conspicuous birds of the Duck tribe, Anatida', called, 

 however, in many parts of England the " Burrow-Duck " from its 

 habits presently to be mentioned, and in some districts by the 

 almost obsolete name of " Bergander " (Dutch, Berg-eemle, Germ. 

 Bergente), a word used by Turner in 1544. Other local names are 

 Skeel-duck and Skelder. 



The Sheldrake is the Anas tadorna^ of Linnaeus, and the 

 Tadorim cornuta or T. vulpanser of modern ornithology, a bird some- 

 what larger and of more upright statiire than an ordinary Duck, 

 having its bill, with a basal fleshy pro- 

 tuberance (whence the specific term cornuta) 

 pale red, the head and upper neck very 

 dark glossy green, and beneath that a 

 broad white collar, succeeded b}^ a still 

 broader belt of bright bay extending from 

 the upper back across the upper breast. 

 The outer scapulars, the primaries, a median ^ , . , . 



. ^. ' '^ Tadorna. (After bwainson.) 



abdominal stripe, which dilates at the vent, 



and a bar at the tip of the middle tail-quills are black ; the inner 

 secondaries and the lower tail-coverts are grey ; and the spemlum 

 or wing-spot is a rich bronzed-green. The rest of the plumage is 

 pure white, and the legs are flesh-coloured. There is little external 

 difference between the sexes, the female being only somewhat 

 smaller and less brightly coloured. The Sheldrake frequents the 

 sandy coasts of nearly the whole of Europe and North Africa, 

 extending across Asia to India, China and Japan, generally kee})ing 

 in pairs and sometimes penetrating to favourable inland localities. 

 The nest is always made under cover, usually in a rabbit-hole 

 among sandhills, and in the Frisian Islands the people supply this 

 bird with artificial burrows, taking large toll of it in eggs and down. 

 Barbary, south-eastern Europe and a large part of Asia are in- 

 habited by an allied species of more inland range and very diff"erent 

 ■coloration, the T. casarca or Casarca- ruiila of ornithologists, the 



Old Norsk name Skjolduncjr, from Sljoldr, primarily a patch, and now 

 ■commonly bestowed on a piebald horse, just as Skjalda (Cleasby's led. 

 Diet, sitb voce), from the same source, is a particoloured cow. But 

 some scholars interpret Skjoldungr by the secondary meaning of Sljoldr, 

 a shield, asserting that it refers to "the shield-like band across the breast" of 

 the bird. If they be right the proper spelling of the English word would l)e 

 "Shield-drake," as some indeed have it. A third suggested meaning, from 

 the Old Norsk Skjol, shelter, is philologically to be rejected, but, if true, would 

 refer to the bird's habit, described in the text, of breeding under cover. 



^ This is the Latinized form of the French Tadornc, first published by Belon 

 (1555), a Avord on which Littre throws no light except to state that it has a 

 southern variant Tardone. 



- Bonaparte in 18-38 separated this species from the genus Tadorna, but 

 neither he nor his successors have shewn any good reason for doing so. 



