SHORE AND SALT-MARSH 



329 



spend part or whole of the autumn and winter by the shore. 

 The most conspicuous birds of the first class are the shelduck, 

 which now breed in increasing numbers on the banks of many 

 estuaries. They nest as a rule in holes among the sand-hills 

 or on the sea-walls, and in various districts are called burrow- 

 ducks ; their favourite site is an outlying rabbit burrow. By 

 July the ducklings are already out in the world, and scuttling 

 about the wet sand-banks and oozy channels under the care 

 of their parents ; and by August they have won the beautiful 



DUNLINS 



white plumage brindled with chestnut and black, and gleam 

 almost as large and bright as their elders as they drift up 

 and down the channels with the tide. Local broods of 

 mallard are also to be found for some time in the sea-marshes, 

 but they are fresh-water ducks by habit, and less at home 

 on the tidal creeks, which are the shelduck's natural haunt. 

 They are apt to skulk uncomfortably among the overgrown 

 channels, and seldom join the happy low-tide parties of shel- 

 duck and vagrant gulls which splash and doze and preen 

 themselves hour after hour in the sunshine at the edge of 

 some ooze-locked pool. It seems all as quiet and permanent 



