COMMON SHELD-DUCK. 341 



in -which the nests are placed, sometimes near the entrance, 

 at others at a long distance from it. The nest is composed 

 of the dead coarse grass which is usually abundant on these 

 sandhills, and lined with a large quantity of the down of the 

 bird, which in texture and in value is almost equal to that 

 of the Eider Duck, and, when the parent is absent, the eggs 

 are completely buried in it. 



Mr. Dennis informed me, but I have forgotten the date, 

 that two out of four Sheld-Ducks were killed in a pool left 

 by the tide, near the mouth of the Cuckmere river, at a 

 single shot, the cartridge passing through a young female 

 and killing an immature male beyond. He said that they 

 flew heavily, with the head low, but, settling among some 

 rocks, ran about in search of shell-fish very actively, and 

 that he had never seen more than four, nor less than two, 

 together, and that he had once seen a pair of young on the 

 Cuckmere in August, though they generally appear in the 

 winter. Mr. Booth, in ' Rough Notes,' states that after a 

 long-continued spell of severe weather in winter, birds of 

 this species are frequently seen in the Channel, off the south 

 coast, in small parties of two or three, or twice that number. 

 Mr. Jeffery, in the 'Zoologist' (p. 1034), states that on 

 November 25th, 1868, he saw two Sheldrakes, there called 

 Bier Ganders, in Chichester Harbour ; and in the same 

 Journal (p. 2108), Mr. Alwin S. Bell records one shot on 

 the Hastings coast, in February 1870. Mr. Gordon, in his 

 ' History of Harting,' states that the Sheld-Duck has been 

 occasionally seen on the large ponds in that parish. The 

 Sheld-Duck utters a low whistle during its flight. 



