KWASEEKHO 



IHELDRAKE, or shelbird, is 

 le name by which this duck 

 J generally known. Probably 

 it was given him by gun- 

 ners, who see him only in 

 winter, when hunger 

 drives him to eat mus- 

 _^ sels. The name fish- 



duck, which one hears 

 occasionally, is much more appropriate. The 

 long slender bill, with its serrated edges 

 fitting into each other, like the teeth of a 

 bear trap, just calculated to seize and hold a 

 wriggling fish, is quite enough evidence as 

 to the nature of the bird's food, even if one 

 had not seen him fishing on the lakes and 

 rivers which are his summer home. 



That same bill, by the way, is sometimes a 

 source of danger. Once, on the coast, I saw 

 195 



