SHELDRAKES. 
Altogether the Egyptian goose is a bird rather of the 
“ cheap and nasty ” order, chiefly suitable to people who 
want to ornament large grounds with small trouble and 
expense. For such a purpose, the showy colours and 
readiness to breed which charat terise this bird render it 
very suitable. It lays at the beginning of spring, and 
sits four weeks on four to eight eggs. Since it is so 
easily bred, some selection might well he attempted in 
order to produce a race less pugnacious than the present 
j one, for it is notorious that domesticated birds, unless 
I bred for fighting, are not so pugilistic as those which 
I have only comparatively recently been reclaimed. 
CHAPTER V. 
Sheldrakes. 
(Photograph from Life.) 
form between a goose’s and a duck’s. It is a good big 
bird, more than two feet long from bill to tail. In 
colour it is brown above and pencilled bull' below and 
on the flanks ; the head and neck are whitey-brown with a 
chestnut patch round each eye ; there is a large chestnut 
pach also on the breast ; the flights and tail are black, 
the shoulder of the wing white, 
with a narrow black stripe a little 
way in front of the dark metallic 
green wingbar. The eyes are 
yellow, and the bill and feet pink. 
The female is like the male, but 
smaller and not quite so bright, 
and the young are very similar. 
This African bird is of very old 
introduction as an ornamental 
water fowl, and has often been 
shot at large in England, even so 
long ago as 1823, when five were 
killed. In spite of the warm 
climate it naturally inhabits, it 
is quite hardy and a very free 
breeder, and the young, if there 
is a wide range, may be suffered 
to go at large unpinioned, subject 
to the risk of getting shot if they 
wander away. It is a good easy 
bird to begin upon, but not a good 
companion for other species, as it 
has a peculiarly nasty temper, and 
will, according to Miss Hubbard, 
tackle a human being, if seized, 
with a vigour sufficient to draw 
blood, besides striking savagely 
with the wings. It should there- 
fore be given a place to itself, if 
almost unlimited space is not 
available. In a wild state it nests 
on cliffs and trees, and the young 
are said to be fond of locusts. 
The voice of the male is a low 
husky chatter ; of the female, a 
harsh, unpleasant barking quack. 
SHELDRAKES. 
With these fine birds I commence the series of what 
are universally regarded as ducks, which are of con- 
siderably more interest to the ordinary fancier than 
their bigger relatives. The Sheldrakes are ducks of 
large size, being as big as or bigger than the ordinary 
wild duck. They are much more elegant in make than 
ducks generally, having small neat bills, long wings, 
rather long square tails, and comparatively light bodies, 
standing high on rather long legs. They move about 
much on land, where they are more active and graceful 
than any other ducks, but they also swim well, sitting 
high on the water with the stern well up, like the 
geese. In disposition they are intelligent and cou- 
rageous — rather too much so, in fact, for in the breeding 
season they may be a source of danger even to larger 
birds. Their colours are very handsome, and have the 
great advantage of being nearly equally brilliant in both 
sexes ; and there is no summer change in the drakes. 
Three species are easily obtainable, and they are highly 
to be recommended to anyone who wants a pair of hand- 
some birds for his garden, for they only need a small 
pond, and their size secures them against ordinary 
Chinese Geese. (S 'cc page 16.) 
(Photograph from Life.) 
