214 TADORNA TADORNA 



on the Island of Sylt, where these ducks were abundant. The decoy was only a 

 "few steps" from the sea-shore, on a pond, and yet it was said that no Sheldrake 

 was ever taken there among the thousands of other ducks captured. MaePherson 

 (1892) says that they prefer to feed with an ebbing tide, and, avoiding the higher 

 ridges of sand, which the wind soon dries, they obtain their shell-fish chiefly on the 

 lower well-watered stretches of sand, which being more firm and clay-like in com- 

 position, retain perhaps half an inch of water on their surfaces. Rushy or reedy 

 places are not to their liking, and they resort to them only in case of necessity, to 

 hide the young, and occasionally to conceal themselves during the period when they 

 moult and are incapable of flight (Naumann, 1896-1905). In boisterous weather 

 they often shift from exposed situations to more sheltered feeding grounds, and at 

 such times appear on sand-beds which at other times they rarely visit. 



Ancient legend connected this duck with the companions of Diomedes, the national 

 hero of the Apulians, who had been transformed. In Pompeii there is a fine mosaic 

 of the species. Pliny mentions them as breeding in holes in an island off the coast 

 of Apulia. 



Wariness. As all English shooters know, these are the very wildest of all the 

 duck tribe. They will not usually allow a punt to approach within three hundred 

 yards in the British Isles (Cordeaux, 1896) and similar habits are common to them 

 in India (Hume and Marshall, 1879). When not persecuted, however, they readily 

 become tame, especially in places where they have been encouraged to associate 

 with man, and nest among his dwellings, as on the Friesian Islands. But living as 

 they do throughout almost the entire year on open stretches and deserted flats, they 

 are among the most difficult water-fowl to observe at close quarters. Their natural 

 shyness has been the subject of remark by naturalists and sportsmen in all parts of 

 their range. Only at times of severe frost did that ardent sportsman, Payne-Gall- 

 wey (1882), find them at all approachable, and Colonel Hawker classed them as 

 among the tamest of wild-fowl when half starved, during the frosts. At such times 

 their food becomes inaccessible, and the vitality of the birds is much reduced. In 

 February and March, when they begin to pair, they lose some of their habitual 

 shyness and sit apart from other water-fowl in some sheltered bay near the sand 

 dunes where they intend to nest (Millais, 1901). Colonel Hawker found that when 

 a brood was approached in open water the old birds flew away, but even then only 

 one or two young could be shot, because they dispersed so quickly. 



Daily Movements. The movements of Sheldrakes are governed almost ex- 

 clusively by the tides, since they ordinarily cannot feed except at low water. They 

 are most active on the ebb-tide, either in the daytime or at night, although they are 

 likely to be more active in the morning and evening, as are most ducks (Naumann, 



