SENTINEL SHELL. 213 



SHARP-TAILED ISLAND (= Iceland) DUCK : The LONG-TAILED 

 DUCK. (Willughby.) 



SHEAR-TAIL: The COMMON TERN. (Orkneys.) 



SHEARWATER: The MANX SHEARWATER. (Montagu.) Also 

 the GREAT SHEARWATER. 



SHEELFA, SHILFA, SHEELY. Local names for the CHAFFINCH, 

 supposed by some to be from the variegated plumage of 

 the male (shell, or shield=pied or variegated.) The first 

 two are North England and Scots names, while Sheely is a 

 Northamptonshire and Yorkshire name. 



SHEELY, or SHIELY. Mr. Witherby tells me that this is a 

 Holy Island (Northumberland) name for the GOLDEN- 

 CRESTED WREN. 



SHEEPRACK: The STARLING. (Northants.) 



SHEEP'S GUIDE : The GOLDEN PLOVER. (Longdendale, 

 Cheshire.) 



SHEEP'S-HEAD-AND-PLUCK : The RED-THROATED DIVER. 

 (Bridlington.) From a supposed resemblance. 



SHELD-DUCK [No. 285]. The name (from sheld=parti- 

 coloured) occurs in Merrett's list (1667) as " Shell Drake " ; 

 he gives it as a Norfolk name, but there is no certainty 

 that it was intended for this species. Willughby and Ray 

 call it " Sheldrake or ' Burrough Duck,' called by some 

 Bergander," and observe that " They are called by some 

 Burrow Ducks, because they build in Coney-burroughs ; 

 by others Sheldrakes, because they are parti-coloured." 

 They, however, merely cite Bergander as found in Ald- 

 rovandus. 



SHELDER: The OYSTERCATCHER. (Shetlands.) 



SHELD FOWL : The SHELD-DUCK. (Orkneys.) 



SHELDRAKE : The SHELD-DUCK. Swainson says it is also 

 a Waterford name for the SHOVELER. 



SHELL or SKELL : The SHELD-DUCK. (Yorkshire.) 



SHELL-, SHEL-, or SHELD-APPLE : The CHAFFINCH (Stafford- 

 shire and Northumberland.) Occurs in Turner (1544) as 

 " Sheld-appel." Swainson thinks the " sheld " means 

 parti-coloured as in SHELD-DUCK, and that the " apple " 

 is a form of Alp (q.v.). Merrett, Willughby, Pennant, 

 Bewick and other authors apply the name, however, to the 

 CROSSBILL, and much more appropriately, as the latter 

 species literally shells apples, cf. Carew (" Survey of Corn- 

 wall." p. 73, 1602) who says : " Not long since there came a 

 flock of birds into Cornwall, about harvest season, in bigness 



