of the wings, passes out to sea, or down the coast to more secluded haunts. During the breeding season, this Duck frequents the sand dunes on the English coast, but is rare and local in the south; in Scotland it is commoner, and may be met with in almost all places suited to its requirements, including the Hebrides. In Ireland, however, it becomes local and uncommon, although widely dispersed. When the young are reared the bird becomes more widely distributed, but even then its preference for the sand makes it still local. The Sheldrake is known by many provincial names, among which may be mentioned “Burrow Duck,” “Bergander,” and “Shell-duck.” The origin of this Duck’s colloquial name is somewhat obscure, although Willughby and Ray attribute it to the bird’s strongly-contrasted plumage—“sheld” being the East Anglian equivalent for parti-coloured.[5] The Old Norse name for this Duck was skjöldungr, from _skjöldr_, a piebald horse. The Sheldrake is certainly a social bird, but can scarcely be termed a gregarious one. Small parties may be seen feeding in the shallows or swimming in the sea. The bird obtains its food either whilst wandering along the shore—its gait is more elegant than that of most Ducks, owing to the comparatively longer legs—or when swimming in water just deep enough for it to reach the sandy bottom, when the fore part of the body is submerged, and the hind quarters held almost perpendicular. This food consists chiefly of sand-hoppers, crustaceans, molluscs, and small fish; but on shore the bird also eats grass, stems and leaves of aquatic plants, and worms. The Sheldrake rarely wanders far from the sea, its visits to the land seldom extending beyond the dunes or the rough saltings. The note of this Duck is a harsh quack, but in the pairing season an oft-repeated tremulous cry is uttered, and when the young are abroad a guttural _kurr_ is heard.