BIRDS 267 



success in rearing young Sheldrakes on a small pond beside his 

 cottage, and showed us that their sexes can early be distin- 

 guished by size, but especially by the fact that the males have 

 the bill of a pure yellowish red, when feathered, while the 

 ridge of the bill is long and dusky in the young female. An 

 adult wild male Sheldrake in good condition weighs about three 

 pounds, but pinioned birds vary much in size, and to some 

 extent in the time which they require to assume full plumage. 

 A young male, reared in 1888, refused to breed in 1889, though 

 confined with an old and amatory female, but it voluntarily 

 mounted guard over some flappers of its own kind, introduced 

 upon the same pond. A four-year-old male paired with a 

 female aged seven years in 1890, and the latter nested under a 

 stack in a farmyard at Whitrigg. Seven young ones hatched 

 out, but four of the number were killed by rats while still very 

 small. The three survivors grew up fine vigorous birds, and 

 had feathered nicely when I saw them swimming on the 

 farmyard pond with their parents on the 19th July. Not 

 being pinioned, however, they took French leave one day and 

 never returned, to the chagrin of the farmer. Smith had a 

 pair of pinioned Sheldrakes on his own pond in the spring of 

 1890. Two pairs of wild Sheldrakes came to the same pond, 

 and, as their custom is, fought so much, disturbing their tame 

 brethren, that he shot one of them to scare the others away. Even 

 the pinioned birds became very amatory in March. The drake 

 engaged in many encounters, particularly with a gamecock, 

 which he thrashed soundly. On bright spring mornings the 

 male often whistled, and the female uttered the curious laugh to 

 which I have often listened when watching a pair of Sheldrakes 

 flighting restlessly around the point of Eockliffe marsh in the 

 spring-time. The whistle of the drake is quite distinct from 

 the deep ' kuk ' which I have heard uttered by an old male 

 when covering the retreat of his young, which were crossing 

 the Eavenglass estuary under the espionage of the mother bird. 

 Though rarely breeding in captivity, either with its own kind, 

 or by crossing with the domesticated mallard, the Sheldrake in 

 some instances becomes very tame and domesticated. We often 

 saw an old duck Sheldrake at home in Smith's cottage, and 



