492 ANATID^. 



incubation, but when its brood is hatched it is seen again, 

 accompanied by a troop of ducklings, feeding in the creeks 

 and marshy places. A^Hien thus discovered, the young 

 broods are commonly hunted down by seaside idlers for 

 the sake of being sold to any one who cares to try the 

 experiment of rearing them. 



On the coast of Norfolk it is more usual to search for 

 the nests, in order to secure the eggs and place them under 

 a tame Duck or domestic Hen. The male and female keep 

 together, not only during incubation, but until the young 

 are able to provide for themselves. It derives the name 

 " Burrow Duck," by which it is also known, from its cus- 

 tom of making its nest either in the burrow of a rabbit or 

 in a hole hollowed out by itself. The nest is constructed 

 of such herbage as abounds in the neighbourhood ; it is 

 lined with down plucked from the breast of the parent 

 bird, and contains from ten to twelve eggs. 



Pennant (vol. ii. p. 257) says of these birds : " They 

 inhabit the sea-coasts and breed in rabbit-holes. When a 

 person attempts to take their young, the old birds show 

 great address in diverting his attention from the brood ; 

 they will fly along the ground as if wounded, till the 

 former can get into a place of security, and then return 

 and collect them together." 



From this instinctive cunning, Turner, with good reason, 

 imagines them to be the clienalopex or Fox-goose of the 

 ancients ; the natives of the Orkneys to this day call them 

 the Sly-goose, from an attribute of that quadruped. 



Sheldrakes are more numerous during the summer in 

 J^orth Britain than in the South, but in winter they are 

 driven by the freezing of their feeding-grounds to more 

 temperate climates. Here numbers of them meet the fate 

 of wildfowl generally, and specimens are often to be seen 

 exposed in the English markets, though their flesh is held 

 in little estimation as food. 



T\\Q name of this bird is variously spelt Slielldrake, 



