October 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
51 
The sheldrake is hardly patronised, as it ought to be, for 
the decoration of the pond in the pleasure-ground. Orange 
or bright bay, black or metallic bottle green, and very pure 
white in the plumage ; with bright red bill, and feet, and 
legs, as Willughby says, “ of a pale red or flesh-colour, the 
skin being so pellucid that the tract of the veins mag easily be 
discerned through it” are not features to be seen in every 
ordinary farm-yard duckpoird. The slight upturning of the 
bill at the end, gives the same pretty, pert air, as is im ■ 
pressed on the human countenance by a not too snub nose. 
Both sexes are alike in colouring, though that of the female 
is less decided. This character, perhaps, also shows their 
intermediate place between the ducks and the geese : for in 
the true ducks, however gay the male, the lady is in general 
soberly brown or russet. I once bought half a dozen shel¬ 
drake's eggs in Norfolk (where they have bred regularly on 
the coast) for as many shillings. They are larger than 
common ducks’ eggs, but otherwise similar : that is, they 
are of the same shape, tinted with a light sea green, and 
having a smooth greasy substance. A ben incubated them, 
and brought off two sheldrakelings, informing us thereby 
that the little ones are quite destitute of the gay clothing 
which bedecks their parents. Their down is greyey-browny- 
greeu, like that which covers the go.slings of the brown 
China goose; but they have four lighter yellowish spots, one 
on each shoulder, undone on each hip, which would help you 
to pick them out from amongst hundreds of ducklings. 
After a few days, too, it was evident from their respective 
increase in size, that one was a little drake, and the other 
a duck, beginning the world. We reai'ed them to about a 
month old, when they pined and died. Why ? you ought to 
able to guess, if you have read Yarrell, and others, on the 
article Sheldrake. But let us do something better than 
read. Let us go and rdsit the breeding places of the shel¬ 
drake. We shall then see why Willughby calls them “ Bur¬ 
row-ducks.” I am rather in want of a little fresh air, and 
we shall study natural histoi’y after the hunter’s fashion. 
We are approaching the little fishing-town of Blakeneyj 
and you already perceive a change in the scene. It is a 
good great-coat colder than at home; and the air is more 
than transparent. It illuminates the landscape, as if there 
were some bright medium between it and our eyes, as there 
is, in truth. These hills are steeper in their declivity than 
those we are accustomed to : our gravelly crag would not 
lie at so great an angle to the horizon, but would have 
slipped down before it became covered with herbage. The 
material here is well-worn pebble-stones and coarse shingle. 
You may remember that hills composed of loose matters 
have a slope corresponding to the stulf they are made of. 
The ashy cone on the top of Vesuvius is an example which 
my legs have not even yet. forgotten. Different heaps of 
different rubbish inchne according to their own private 
methods of slope; as would different kinds of sand in dif¬ 
ferent hour-glasses. 
A way-side passenger has become a rarity. The few we 
do meet make a point of saluting us respectfully. Yonder, 
crouched in the hedge, with red hands and blue face, is a 
boy deputed to the office here called “ keeping ” crows. I 
wonder if he be the same, to whom his employer once 
shouted, “ Well, boy, where are you going to now ? ” “Why. 
master, I lia’ kept ’em in this piece till they ha’ eaten it up 
good tidily clean. They ha’ flown to the tother piece, and 
I’m now agoin’, like winking, to keep ’em there.” Obseiwe, 
too, the cottage gardens. Their contents mark the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the sea. You might suspect it from the extra- 
bright colours of the few remaining flowers, and from the 
extreme luxuriance of those rosemary shrubs ; but here 
you see, for the first time during our drive, that hand¬ 
some plant, the Tree Mallow {Lavatera arborea), displaying 
fiowrets not a few. Depend upon it, the “ Missis ” is finely 
])roud of that ten or twelve-foot specimen. I envy it myself. 
Those next door are of the same species, though their 
foliage is so different. Before flowering, the leaves are 
ample, but when the plant attains its reproductive stage, 
they are much smaller. In either state it is ornamental, as 
you see ; but though a British native, and even a member of 
the scanty Bass Rock flora, it is not generally known. Many 
an alien is more familiar to people who saunter in dressed 
grounds and trim parterres. In gardens it often remains 
some years without blooming, but dies in the winter after it 
has flowered; for it is, or ought to be, naturally biennial. 
Seeds fallen in the ground from the parent mallow will keep 
springing up every season for a number of years : but the 
young plants are impatient of cold, except in maritime 
situations, and few survive, which may be the reason why it 
is so rarely seen inland. But a tolerable gardener would get 
over that difficulty. 
At last we are arrived, and a queer-looking place it is ! 
The town seems a cul-de-sac, with no thoroughfare. There is 
one, discoverable by the enterpri.sing. The dull little two- 
storied liouses, in the nairow street, stand staring full- 
visaged at each other, like partners in a country-dance, in¬ 
stead of boldly facing the wide extent of marsh, creek, sea, 
and sands, as you and I should place them, were we to 
engage one for a three-months’ lodging. And, listen ! A 
watchman’s rattle ! if watchmen had not been swallowed up 
by the police. Ah ! look! it is a fish-cart from Sheringham. 
The “ old chap,” in Saxon (the “ senile vendor,” in Roman) 
English, distrusts his feeble voice to give due honour to his 
commodities, so, after a flourish on the rattle, “ Haddocks ! 
fresh haddocks !” is gasped forth in a faint and asthmatical 
cry. Oh ! we are not on vulgar ground ; though genteel 
people, dear souls ! very rarely trust their precious selves to 
stand on the pebbly pavement over which we are passing. 
“ What do 5’ou want for this haddock? No. I will not 
give you more than threepence ; if I stretch another penny, 
I’ll have that nice ’ But ’ into the bargain. Very weU: we’ll 
take these to B-’s, to be fried for breakfast. It will be 
a rehef to Mrs. B., who does not expect us. Tell me; dare 
truly genteel people carry a couple of fish into an inn-yard 
between finger and thumb ? ” 
But it is still too early to pay our respects to the Naids, 
“ and the nymphs who dance on the sands,” though our 
jaunt has taken place at the best possible age of the moon. 
At Blakeney it is high water at six in the morning, three or 
four days after full moon and change. So, we can drop 
down to the sea and the extraordinary “ meals,” four or five 
miles distant by water, with the ebb-tide, and return with 
the flood in a conveniently-timed day. Before we need take 
boat there is time for a good walk. Almost every other 
path is under water, thanks to this pressing north wind, so 
W'e will foUow the Marsh bank, itself a pleasing wonder. 
D. 
{To be continued.) 
WILD BEES. 
By H. W. Newman, Esq. l 
(Continued from vol. viii., page 422.) 
APIS L.4PIDAEIA (RED, OR ORANGE-TAILED BEE). 
This is another beautiful species of wild bee very 
common in England. It forms its nests sometimes in old 
walls, heaps of stones, Ac., or in the earth, generally a 
couple of inches only from the surface. The female, or 
queen bee, is large, very black, and hairy, with the three 
last segments of the abdomen red, or deep orange; the 
male is smaller, quite differently marked, being nearly all 
yellow, except the abdomen, which is red; the worker is a 
smaller bee, and marked tbe same as the queen. This is a 
very common bee in some parts of England, and on the 
continent, but I never saw one of this species in any part of 
Scotland, though there is a variety of it differently marked, 
with nearly the same habit in every respect, most frequently 
found there in old walls; they go by a very vulgar name 
among the lower orders in the north. 
Of these (Red-tailed) I have taken many nests. This is 
easily done, as they are mostly on or near the surface of the 
ground, but out of the reach of the tread of cattle. My 
method is to lay the nest bare in the course of the day, and i 
after sunset, when they are all quiet, to go with a small box, ! 
and lift the whole of the nest, combs, bees, &c., all at once, 
and cover them up for the night. It will amply repay any 
one curious in these trifles to watch the exit of the workers 
in the morning, when the aperture is opened, and they find 
themselves in a new situation; the care with which they 
survey the entrance one by one, the slow and cautious 
manner in which they take their first few flights, is most 
