22 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



The head and neck are, as Wilson says, black, glossed 

 with green, but the lower part of the neck pure white, 

 and these colors bound on each other so abruptly that 

 one appears to be sewed on to the other. 



It is a perfect wedge from the middle of its body to 

 the end of its tail, and it is only three and a quarter 

 inches deep from, back to breast at the thickest part, 

 while the greatest breadth horizontally (at the root of 

 the legs) is five and a half inches. In these respects it 

 reminds me of an otter, which, however, I have never 

 seen. 



I suspect that I have seen near a hundred of these 

 birds this spring, but I never got so near one before. 



April 7, 1855. In my walk in the afternoon of to- 

 day, I saw from Conantum, 1 say fifty rods distant, two 

 sheldrakes, male and probably female, sailing on A. 

 Wheeler's cranberry meadow. I saw only the white of 

 the male at first, but my glass revealed the female. The 

 male is easily seen a great distance on the water, being 

 a large white mark. But they will let you come only 

 within some sixty rods ordinarily. I observed that they 

 were uneasy at sight of me and began to sail away in 

 different directions. I could plainly see the vermilion 

 bill of the male and his orange legs when he flew (but 

 he appeared all white above), and the reddish brown 

 or sorrel of the neck of the female, and, when she lifted 

 herself in the water, as it were preparatory to flight, 

 her white breast and belly. She had a grayish look on 

 the sides. Soon they approached each other again and 



1 [A tract of land on the Sudbury Hirer, so called by Thoreau from 

 the Conant family, who formerly lived there.] 



