II. MERGANSER. 



LDRAKE, or shellbird, is the 

 name by which this duclc is gener- 

 ally known, though how he came to 

 be called so would be hard to tell. 

 Probably the name was given by 

 gunners, who see him only in 

 winter when hunger drives him 

 J^^^^" to eat mussels — but even then 

 he likes mud-snails much better. 

 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 slimy 

 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 a shelldrake 

 trying in vain to fly against the wind, which flung 



him rudely among some tall reeds near me. The 



27 



