Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/485

Rh extensive salt-marsh, which is resorted to by large numbers of Sheld-Ducks. On May 19th, when walking along the shore, we saw several odd birds and pairs, and on reaching the saltings we were delighted to find no fewer than sixty-one Sheld-Ducks sitting or standing amongst the rushes. In striking contrast to a pair of yelping Redshanks, the Sheld-Ducks were surprisingly tame, often allowing us to approach within a few yards; and even when they flew, they merely moved as far as a lagoon at the edge of the marsh, where they waded and fed in the shallow water. Near Malldraeth Yard, where the high road skirts a big tidal pool, the Sheld-Ducks, unlike the Herons which were feeding in the pool, paid but little attention to passers-by. Many domestic Ducks were feeding here, but the wild birds would allow no encroachment upon the spot where they happened to be feeding, driving the domestic birds away. The Sheld-Ducks often rose from the marsh in pairs, the duck, on the wing, being noticeably smaller than the drake.

When we visited the district later—on June 12th and 13th—we found about the same number of birds on the saltings; and in several places on the sand-hills we saw the footprints of old and young leading down to the shore. Near Aber Menai Point we came suddenly on a pair with eight small young ones, which were paddling at the edge of the tide. Both old birds at once squattered along the water like a Mallard duck, while the young rushed into the waves, paddling out to sea in a different direction from that taken by their parents. The male desisted first from these alluring tactics, and presently both birds swam out and joined the young, which were by then some distance from the shore.

Other birds with young broods were swimming at sea, and on the marsh we came across a family which scuttered through the rushes before us. One of these which we captured—a bird about a third grown—was clothed in greyish-white down, with a broad brown band from the forehead to the tail, crossed on the shoulders by a band extending to the tips of the wings, and by another, in the pelvic region, which extended to the thighs. The bill was lead-blue, with a small whitish nail, and the legs and feet leadblue, tinged with olive-green.