206 GEESE AND GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS. 



arms, its white body divided by the dark breast- 

 stripe, not to mention its gaudy red bill and reddish 

 feet, the Sheldrake is clothed in patchwork of the 

 boldest type. It is essentially a coast-bird, nesting 

 in a long burrow in the sandhills (either a rabbit- 

 burrow or one made by the bird itself), and feeding 

 on the shore-flats among the shallow pools left by the 

 tide, the male standing sentry in the daytime, and 

 afterwards accompanying the female with a small, 

 continuous, whistling note on her homeward flight. 

 If she be not engaged in hatching, both may pass the 

 time between tides on or lying beside some inland 

 pool, sleeping or feeding on aquatic growth pulled up 

 from the bottom of the pool. When the young are 

 out both attend them, the male standing sentry when 

 on shore ; and when all take to the water, swimming 

 on a broad front, he occupies one extremity, whilst 

 the female occupies the other, of the extended line. 

 The Sheldrake stands between the Geese and the 

 Ducks, but he is more like the former both in his ways 

 and in his looks. There is no Goose or Duck except 

 the Shoveller in any way resembling the Sheldrake 

 either in its colours or in the sharply defined patches 

 in which they are laid on. 



SHOVELLER 20 inches. This bird reproduces in a general 

 way the green, white, and chestnut of the head, neck, 

 and chest of the Sheldrake ; but in the Shoveller the 

 green occupies the whole neck, the white occurs on the 

 chest as an incomplete band being broken behind and 

 the chestnut extends right down the breast ; the wings 

 lack the sharp quartering of the Sheldrake, and the 

 bill is lead-colour and flattened out enormously at the 

 end. The Shoveller is a fresh-water Duck. 



