264 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



wide, open creek, where it began to feed, occasionally raising its 

 long neck in order to watch our movements. After making a 

 careful circuit, we decided that it was a useless risk for the two of 

 us to try to stalk the bird ; consequently I ceded to the sports- 

 man the honour of a tedious and painful creep to the creek in 

 which the bird was feeding, lying flat whenever he saw the bird 

 raise its head, and crawling forward whenever it grazed upon 

 the grass. Meanwhile I watched Cygnus from a distance, saw 

 it leave the water, and begin to move about the marsh, uttering 

 a loud clattering, such as might be compared to the sound of 

 two large pebbles being knocked together. Mr. Thorpe heard 

 this at a very short distance, and thought that it was answered 

 by another Swan far away; but, as the Swan turned away from 

 him while vociferating this ' Hack — Mack] he could not see what 

 action accompanied the production of this sound. Eventually 

 he succeeded in shooting the bird, which proved to be a young 

 Bewick's Swan in change. The delicate cinnamon dress of im- 

 maturity had already been in part replaced by the snow-white 

 plumage of the full-dressed bird. Though in fair condition, 

 this example only weighed 8 lbs. A few blades of marsh grass 

 were all the food that it contained. 



SHELD DUCK. 



Tadoma cornuta (S. G. Gmel.). 



The sandy estuaries which indent the coast of the north- 

 west of England have been the haunt of the Sheldrake from 

 time immemorial. Between 1612 and 1634 these birds were 

 often purchased for the table of Lord William Howard, being 

 variously entered in that nobleman's accounts as ' Shelldrake,' 

 1 Skeldrake ' and ' Shelfoule,' the supply being no doubt obtained 

 from the Solway Firth. Dr. Heysham knew the species as a 

 resident on the coast, and T. C. Heysham furnished Cumbrian 

 specimens for the collection of Henry Doubleday. Unlike most 

 of our wild-fowl, the Sheldrake or ' Shellduck,' as it is most often 

 called, shows little or no diminution of its numbers in conse- 

 quence of modern innovations. Many pairs nest among the 

 sandhills of the Eavenglass estuary, and others on the Duddon, 



