Country Life
By IAN NIALL MANY times, while walking in the fields, I have been delighted with the defensive antics of a hen partridge, but the other day, crossing the estuary with two dogs as my companions, I saw a most gallant display on the part of a sheldrake. Earlier I had found a pair of these most colourful ducks accompanying their eight ducklings from one waterhole to another and had stampeded the youngsters to a half-flight, half-walk on the surface of the water. On the second occasion, when the dogs came upon the brood, the drake took the air and flew in front of the pair, leading them in a wide arc as they raced over the sand flats until they were more than half a mile from the youngsters. Never did the old bird hurry but kept a strategic distance of about six yards in front, three or four feet from the sand. While this was going on, the mother bird hurried her string of ducklings on towards the sea. The dogs rejoined me at length and the drake came sweeping in to offer himself again with the same result. This happened four times until the ducklings were safely on the water, whereupon. the drake rose and left the panting dogs far behind, finally dropping on the water to bring up the rear of the line as it bobbed out into the tide.
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