SHOVELER. 375 



SHOVELER. 



(Anas clypeata, Lin. Lath. sp. 60. Wilson, viii. p. 65. pi. 67. fig. 

 7. BoNAP. Synops. No. 322. Richard aud Swains. North. Zool. 

 ii. p. 439. Temji. Man. dOrn. ii. p. 842. jIjuis rubens, Gmel. 

 sp. 81. [var. young male.] Shoveler Duck, Penn. Arct= Zool. ii. 

 No. 485. Le Souchet, Buff. PI. Enlum. 971, and 972. [male and 

 female.] Phil. Museum, No. 2734.) 



Sp. Charact. — With a green spot or mirror on the wings, mar- 

 gined above with white, and below with black ; the wing coverts 

 light blue. — jMcile brown : head and neck green ; the belly rufous 

 chestnut. Female and young wholly brownish, varied with whitish, 

 rufous, and blackish. 



The Shoveler, remarkable by the broadness of its bill, is 

 an inhabitant of the northern parts of both continents ; 

 according to Richardson, frequenting chiefly the clear lakes 

 of the hyperboreal districts, selecting for their breeding place 

 the Barren Grounds, where they remain to pass the summer, 

 appearing in numbers in the more southern and woody 

 country, only in the spring and autumn when migrating. 

 Early in October they visit the small fresh water lakes and 

 marshes near the sea in Massachusetts, and in the course of 

 the winter continue south to the extremity of the Union, pene- 

 trating into Mexico and along the coast of the Gulf to 

 Vera Cruz, and perhaps still further in quest of subsistence, 

 and shelter from the cold. They also inhabit Norway, 

 Sweden, and Russia, and are found even in Kamtschatka in 

 the summer. They are very abundant in the marshes, 

 lakes, and rivers of Holland, and as birds of passage visit 

 France, Germany and England. Soon after March, accor- 

 ding to Baillon, they disperse through the fens in France to 

 breed, and select the same places with the Summer Teal, 

 choosing with them large tufts of rushes, making a nest of 

 withered grass in the most boggy and difficult places of 



