THE SHOVELER AS A SCOTTISH BREEDING SPECIES 159 



contained an egg almost ready for exclusion {Faiam of the Tweed 

 Area, p. 156). About the first decade of the twentieth century 

 Shoveler were found nesting at Whitterick Bog, near St Boswells {I.e.). 

 Selkirkshire. Bolam records Shovelers from the Shaws Loch, 

 in Ettrickdale, and it would be well if a look-out were kept for 

 nesting of the species in this district {Birds of Northumberland 

 and the Eastern Borders, p. 377). 



SOLWAY. 



Breeds. Local autumn and winter visitor. 



Kirkcudbright. In the Natural History of British Surface 

 Feeding Ducks, p. 59, published in 1902, Mr Millais says that the 

 Shoveler breeds annually in the Stewartry. There does not seem 

 to be much detailed information available regarding the nesting of 

 this duck in Kirkcudbright, and it would be interesting if any 

 readers who have notes of its first arrival and subsequent nesting 

 there would be kind enough to send them to us. 



Dumfriesshire. A Shoveler's nest was found beside the River 

 Cairn on Coatstown Farm in this county in the spring of 1899 or 

 1900, and Mr Gladstone believes that the species may be said to 

 breed occasionally in V)MV^'ix'\^%'i\v\x& {Birds of Diwifries, p. 271). 



Clyde. 



Breeds in small numbers and is a winter visitor. One of the 

 earliest records of the Shoveler nesting in Scotland comes from 

 Clyde, but it does not seem to have established itself and spread 

 through the area as it has done in some other parts. 



Dumbartonshire. Before 187 1, the date of publication of the 

 Birds of the West of Scotland by Robert Gray, p. 365, a female 

 Shoveler had been shot and the nest found in this county. 



Re nfreiv shire. The male bird of a pair was killed on the Gryfe, 

 near Lichinnan, in the first week of June 1870 {Birds of West 

 of Scotland, p. 364), and though this cannot, of course, be claimed 

 as a breeding record, still there is the possibility that the birds were 

 nesting. After this there is an absolute absence of records until 

 Mr John Robertson wrote his paper on the Birds of Renfrewshire 

 {Scot. Nat., T915, p. 268); in this he tells us that a pair or two nest 

 each year on Castle Semple Loch. 



Forth. 

 Breeds, and is a winter visitor. 



