192 BIRDS AND MAN 



say that it has a striking appearance, or that it is 

 pecuHar and handsome in a curious way ; or they 

 might describe it as an abnormally slender and 

 elegant-looking Aylesbury duck, whiter than that 

 domestic bird, with a crimson beak and legs, dark- 

 green glossy head, and sundry patches of chestnut- 

 red and black on its snowy plumage. In calling it 

 " strange " I was thinking of its manners and cus- 

 toms rather than of the singularity of its appearance. 

 As to its beauty, those who know it in a state of 

 nature, in its haunts on the sea coast, will agree 

 that it is one of the handsomest of our large wild 

 birds. It cannot now be said that it is common, 

 except in a few favoured localities. On the south 

 coast it is all but extinct as a breeding species, and 

 on the east side of England it is becoming increas- 

 ingly rare, even in spots so well suited to it as Holy 

 Island, and the coast at Bamborough Castle, with 

 its great sand-hills. These same hills that look on 

 the sea, and are greener than ivy with the ever- 

 lasting green of the rough marram grass that 

 covers them, would be a very paradise to the shel- 

 drake, but for man — vile man ! — who watches him 

 through a spy-glass in the breeding season to rob 

 him of his eggs. The persecuted bird has grown 

 exceedingly shy and cautious, but go he must to 



