172 THE SHELDEAKE 



provide one of the choicest ornaments of our sea land- 

 scapes. Moreover the sheldrake cannot be eaten by 

 civilised man. Even that inveterate wild-fowler, Colonel 

 Peter Hawker, after giving elaborate instructions for 

 the shooting of them adds: 'These birds show but 

 tame sport with the gun, and are good for nothing 

 when killed.' I have no intention of sampling their 

 flesh, but Yarrell pronounced it to be ' coarse and bad, 

 dark in colour, and unpleasant both in smell and 

 flavour.' For very shame's sake, then, if not for mercy's 

 sake, let an end be put to the destruction of what are 

 among our finest water-fowls. 



The distribution of the various species of sheldrakes 

 is very interesting, especially in the light of a certain 

 circumstance mentioned by the late Professor Alfred 

 Newton. The South African species, Tadorna cana, 

 has earned its specific name by its grey head, the rest 

 of its plumage being cinnamon or bay coloured, and its 

 bill and legs very dark coloured, like the ruddy shel- 

 drake (T. casarca). It will be seen, therefore, how 

 different is the coloration of this African bird from our 

 British sheldrake, which has a dark green head, a broad 

 white collar, a chestnut waistcoat; the rest of the 

 plumage white and black, with a wing-spot of bright 

 green-bronze, and the legs and bill vermilion, male and 

 female being clad alike. Despite the dissimilarity in 

 the appearance of these two species, in 1859 a male 

 British sheldrake in the Zoological Society's Garden 

 took unto himself a South African spouse in the person 

 of a female Tadorna cana. Their offspring might have 

 been expected to display a combination of their parents' 



