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in a state of freedom, in the hope of interesting some readers

who have not many opportunities of visiting the haunts of this

handsome species.


The Sheld-duck is a bird of the sea-shore. He is, it is

true, occasionally found a considerable distance inland, but only

on rare occasions, and there is hardly a species of duck found in

our Islands which is in a truer sense a sea-duck than the species

we are considering. The young duckling is usually hatched only

a short distance from high water mark. His infancy is passed,

not on some secluded pond or reedy lake, but among the tumbling

billows and the nooks and crannies of the sea-shore, and when

he has arrived at maturity he seldom strays from the ever-

changing line where the sea meets the land.


On the muddy flats and lofty sand hills which are so con¬

spicuous in parts of the Somerset coast-line, the Sheld-ducks

find all the requirements suited to their habits. They are never

entirely absent from these haunts, but are perhaps most con¬

spicuous during the nesting season. At the end of March, or

early in April, they begin to collect at their breeding places,

which are quite near to the large expanses of soft mud and sand

which have been their feeding grounds during the winter

months.


It is probable that the habits of these ducks differ some¬

what, according to the locality in which they are found, and my

own observations refer only to a certain part of the Somerset

coast. I have been struck by the different breeding habits of

the birds, even in this small area. During the winter the ducks

are scattered over the feeding grounds in the Bristol Channel in

parties and flocks up to 300 or more in number. Early in

spring the birds congregate in the spots where they intend to

breed, and I know of two nesting stations, each holding more

than a hundred pairs, but in which, although they are practically

contiguous, the habits of the birds are, owing to physical con¬

ditions, somewhat different.


One colony breeds on a bold headland which runs out a

mile or more into the sea ; the other colony breeds among the

high sand dunes which stretch from the base of the Down south¬

ward along the coast. So close are these two colonies that per¬

haps they should be regarded as only forming one, and yet it is

curious to notice that the different physical conditions have

slightly modified the habits of the birds. The Down, which is

steep and rocky near the water’s edge, is partly covered with

thick vegetation and tangled masses of privet, bramble and other



