(n.) Any one of several species of large Old World ducks of the genus Tadorna and allied genera, especially the European and Asiatic species. (T. cornuta, / tadorna), which somewhat resembles a goose in form and habit, but breeds in burrows.
(n.) Any one of the American mergansers.
Example Sentences:
(1) A more rigorous and transparent process would encourage social services to take greater care to justify where a child was placed, agrees Sheldrake.
(2) If local residential provision cannot, or indeed should not, be expanded quickly, "there has to be a really huge emphasis on quality rather than cost", argues Jill Sheldrake, director of social care at Together Trust, a charity that runs residential homes in the north-west.
Shelduck
Definition:
(n.) The sheldrake.
Example Sentences:
(1) Breeding birds feeding on the estuary in summer include curlews, shelducks and oystercatchers.
(2) Attempts at virus isolation from cloacal swabs resulted in the recovery of 10 strains of hemagglutinating viruses from a total of 349 ducks, mainly shelducks (Tadorna tadorna) captured in the north of France.
(3) The land that would be submerged hosts about 68,000 birds in winter, including huge flocks of dunlins and shelducks, together with Bewick's swans, curlews, pintails, wigeons and redshanks.
(4) A family of Raja Shelducks, the eight adolescent youngsters obediently following their parents, is the first surprise; a flock of this country’s largest flying bird, the Australian White Pelican, is next.
(5) Shelduck is known to be a partially migratory species, wintering in western Europe, some of them migrating northward to Scandinavia during the summer.