208 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



they live on the fresh-water shrimps and stanacles, and the 

 dikes are full of them, we know." 



THE COMMON SHELDUCK. 



I know an inn where a ruddy shelduck stands in a 

 "glassen box," and a gunner tells me he shot one three 

 years ago on the marshes near the sea. He says, too, he 

 always sees them singly, and generally in the month of 

 May. Old men tell how they used to breed in the warrens, 

 but my own observation does not go beyond the bird in the 

 " glassen box." 



