sheldrake (sheldrak)

[Formerly also shell drake (also shieldrake, shield - drake, shildrake, appar. artificial forms according to its orig. meaning), dorna and Casarca. The common sheldrake is T. vulpanser, or T. cornuta, the so-called links goose, sly goose, Sheldrake ( Tadorna cornuta or vulpanser ). skeelgoose or skeelduck, burrow or barrow - duck, berg an der, etc., of Great Britain and other parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This is a duck, though with somewhat the figure and carriage of a goose, and belongs to the Ana tinæ (having the hallux unlobed), but is maritime, and notable for nesting in underground burrows. It is about as large as the mallard, and has a similar glo y greenish black head and neck; the plumage is otherwise varied with black, white, and chestnut in bold pattern; the bill is carmine, with a frontal knob, and the legs are flesh-colored. This bird is half-tamed in some places, like the eider-duck, and laid under contribution for its eggs. The ruddy shel drake or Brahminy duck is T. casarca, or Casarca rutila, wide-ranging like the foregoing. Each of these sheldrakes is represented in Australian, Papuan, and Polynesian regions by such forms as Tadorna radjah, Casarca tad or no ides, and C. variegata. No sheldrakes properly so called are American. 2. The shoveler-duck, Spatula clype at a, whose variegated plumage somewhat resembles that of the sheldrake. [Local, Eng.] -3. A merganser or goosander; especially, the red a plank or shelf, = MLG. schelf, LG. schelfe, a shelf, Icel. skjālf, a bench, seat (only in comp. hlidh- skjalf, lit. 'gate-bench,' a name for the seat of Odin); prob. orig. 'a thin piece'; cf. Sc.skelve, a thin slice; D. schilfer, a scale, schilferen, scale off, LG. schelfern, scale off, peel, G. schelfe, a husk, shell, paring, schelfen, schelfern, peel off; Gael. sgealb, a splinter, split. Cf. shelf 2.] 1. A thin slab or plank, a piece of marble, slate, wood, or other material, generally long and narrow, fixed horizontally to a wall, and used for supporting small objects; in general, a narrow flat surface, horizontal or nearly so, and raised above a larger surface, as of a floor or the ground. little shelf of com In the southern wall there is a. mon stone, supported by a single arch; upon this are placed articles in hourly use, perfume bottles, coffee cups, a stray book or two. R. F. Burton , El-Medinah, p. 188. 2. In ship - building, an inner timber, or line of timbers, following the sheer of the ve el, and bolted to the inner side of ribs, to strengthen the frame and sustain the deck-beams. See cut under beam, 3. The ends of the deck-beams rest upon a line of timbers secured on the inside surface of the frames. This combination of timbers is termed the shelf . The arle, Naval Arch., § 201. 3. The charging-bed of a furnace. The bed of the furnace is divided into two parts; the "working bed," that nearest the fire, is 6 in. or so lower than the shelf or charging bed. Spons' Encyc. Manuf ., I. 290. 4. In sci ors, the bottom of the countersink which receives the head of the screw uniting the two blades. - To put, lay, or cast on the shelf, to put aside or out of use; lay aside, as from duty or active service; shelve. The seas Had been to us a glorious monument, Where now the fates have cast us on the shelf To hang 'twix air and water. Heywood, Fortune by Land and Sea. shelf1 (shelf), v. t. [ IMG:content-0841.jpg:[ocr errors] shell 1. A scale or husk; the hard outer covering of some kinds of seeds and fruits, as a cocoanut. In Ægypt they fill the shell with milk, and let it stand some time, and take it as an emetic. Pococke , Description of the East, II. i. 233. 2. In zoöl., a hard outer case or covering; a crust; a test; a lorica; a carapace; an indurated (o eous, cartilaginous, cuticular, chitinous, calcareous, silicious, etc.) integument or part of integument. (See exoskeleton.) Specifically-(a) In mammal., the peculiar integument of an ar tron, as in the fo il glyptodonde-shell. madillo, forming carapace, sometimes a plas This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head. Shak., Hamlet, v. 2. 193. (c) In herpet., a carapace or plastron, as of a turtle; specifically, tortoise-shell. (d) In ichth., the box-like integument of the ostracionts. (e) In Mollusca, the test of any mollusk; the valve or valves of a shell-fish; the chitin i zed or calcified product of the mantle; a conch. A shell in one, two, or several pieces is so highly characteristic of mollusks that these animals are commonly called shell fish collectively, and many of them are grouped as Testa cea, Conch if era, etc. In some mollusks, as dibranchiate cephalopods, the shell is internal, constituting the pen or cuttle (see calamary ); in others there is no shell. The shell is secreted chiefly by a mantle or folds of the mantle which are developed around the soft parts, and is usually composed of carbonate of lime. It is generally univalve and spiral, as in most gastropods. In chitons there are eight valves imbricated in a longitudinal series, bound together by a marginal band. In bivalves two shells are developed from and cover the sides of the animal, right and left. (See cuts under bivalve.) Some mollusks otherwise bivalve have acce ory valves. (f) In Brachiopod a there are two valves, but one covers the back and the other the abdominal region, so that the valves are dorsal and ventral. These shells are sometimes composed chiefly of phosphate of lime, as in lingulas. (9) In Crustacea, the special part of it: as, the shell of a crab or lobster. (4) In chitinous or calcareous integument or crust, or some entom.: (1) The wing-case of a beetle; an elytron; a shard: as, "cases or shells (elytra)," Swains on and Shuckard. (2) The cast skin of a pupa, especially of lepidopterous insects; a pupa-shell. (2) In echinoderms, the hard crust or integument, especially when it coheres in one hollow case or covering; a test: as, the shell of a sea-urchin. In Vermes, the tube or case of a tubicolous worm, when hard, thick, or rigid, like a mollusk's shell: as, the shell of a serpula. (k) In some Protozoa, a silicious or calcareous test or lorica of any kind. Such shells are present under numberle modifications, often beautifully shaped and highly complicated, perforated, camerated, etc., as in foraminifers, radiolarians, sun-animalcules, many infusorians, etc. 3. In an at., some hard thin or hollowed part. (a) A turbinate bone; a scroll-bone. (b) A hollow or cylindric cast or exfoliation, as of necrosed bone; a squama. 4. The outer ear, auricle, or conch: as, pearly shells or pink shells. [Chiefly poetical.] The whole external shell of the ear, with its cartilages, muscles, and membranes, is in Man a usele appendage. Haeckel , Evol. of Man (trans.), II. 437. 5. A shelled or testaceous mollusk; a shell-fish. In this sense shell may be added, with or without a hyphen, to numerous words, serving to specify mollusks or groups of mollusks. Some of the best-established of such combinations are noted after the phrases given below. 6. The outer part or casing of a block which at least, in the sense of 'shoal' or 'sand-bank, is mortised for the sheave, and bored at right due to a ociation with shelve2 , and thus ult. practically a doublet of shoall , shoal , sheld2 , shallow1 : see shelve2 , shoal , shallow low1 .] 1. A rock, ock, ledge of rocks, reef, or sand-bank in the sea, rendering the water shallow and dangerous to ships; a reef or shoal; a shallow spot. try the way with soundinge. To auoyde the daungiours of suche shalowe places and shelfes , he euer sent one of the smaulest carauelles before, Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, ed. [Arber, p. 89). What sands, what shelves , what rocks do threaten her! B. Jonson, Cat i line, iii. 1. On the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert faeries and the dapper elves. Milton, Comus, 1. 117. Ships drift darkling down the tide, Nor see the shelves o'er which they glide. Scott , Rokeby, iv. 27. 2. A projecting layer or ledge of rock on land. -3. The bed-rock; the surface of the bed-rock; the rock first met with after removing or sinking through the superficial detritus. [Eng.] shelfy (shel'fi), a. [ Advent'rous Man, who durst the deep explore, Oppose the Winds, and tempt the shelfy Shoar. Congreve, Birth of the Muse. (b) Full of rocky up-cropping ledges. The tillable fields are in some places so... tough that the plough will scarcely cut them, and in some so shelfie that the corn hath much adoe to fasten its roote. R. Carew , Survey of Cornwall, p. 19.