ON THE MOOR 59 



So great are the numbers, so shrill the sound, and 

 so keen the look down upon us, that one can scarcely 

 wonder if nervous people have imagined they 

 meditated an attack, and have even been known to 

 seek safety in flight. 



I sit down for a little to rest, and drink in 

 general impressions. A patch of beauty, some two 

 hundred yards away, resolves itself, under the glass, 

 into a pair of sheldrakes, with their blue heads, 

 and the exceeding purity of the prevailing white, 

 relieved by streaks and dashes of black and brown. 

 It is always easy to recognise this species when 

 there is a pair, seeing that the female is equally 

 bright with the male ; a condition of things not 

 common among the ducks, and probably connected 

 with the habits of nesting. A bird that incubates 

 in the shelter of a rabbit-hole can afford to be 

 bright, and, for the same reason, her lord can safely, 

 as in this case, take a share of the sitting. 



Whereas the eggs of the eider-duck are four, 

 occasionally five in number, and of a light and in- 

 conspicuous green, those of the sheldrake are from 

 ten to a dozen, and white. The eider-duck's eggs 

 are protectively shaded like the female. Sitting 

 sheldrake, and eggs alike are concealed, and stand 

 in no need of shading. The difference in numbers 



