83 



day. iMuch of its food is obtained in the siiallow water near the margins of swamps and lakes, 

 and its broad bill with comb-like lamelhu is particularly well adapted for the purpose of securing 

 small aquatic insects, molluscs and water-weeds, upon which it subsists. 



From Copmanhurst, on the Upper Clarence River, New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge 

 wrote me as follows under date 21st March, 1910: — "The Shoveller (Spatula rliviicliotis) was 

 fairly plentiful about the I'lmarra Swamps some years ago, but it is a scarce bird there now. 

 It is seldom seen on the upper reaches of the river, and evidently prefers low flat swampy 

 country. I have only succeeded in finding its nest and eggs on one occasion. It is a very quick' 

 flier, and soon leaves any other Ducic behind." 



Dr. Walter E. Roth, late Northern Protector of Queensland Aborigines, thus writes on the 

 mode of capture of waterfowl by the natives : — " Ducks and Cranes may be caught with sticks, 

 etc., in the nesting season, by sneaking upon them unawares. The natives of the Upper Georgina 

 River, and in the Boulia District, noose duck's with a long slender stick, to the extremity of 

 which a feather quill with slip-noose is attached. Fhe hunter, well concealed with bushes tied 



around his head and face, waits 

 patiently in the water for his 

 prey, which paddling along the 

 water soon comes into suitable 

 position for the loop to be slipped 

 over its neck. In the hinter- 

 land of Princess Charlotte Bay, 

 on the Palmer River, etc., Ducks, 

 Geese and similar game are 

 all stalked and speared — usually 

 with the ordinary simple-point 

 spear if on land, but commonly 

 with a pronged one in water. 

 In either case the alioriginal 

 covers his head with long grass, 

 tied about near to its extremities 

 into something like a horse- 

 collar, the ends falling over on 

 to the back of the wearer's 

 shoulders. . . . Viewed from the 

 front the individual so concealed 

 looks for all the world like a tussock of grass floating down the stream, so slow and silent are 

 his movements. If Ducks are being hunted out on the plains, the black does not trouble about 

 holding the leafy screen in front of him, but stalks his prey more or less on all fours, under 

 cover of any intervening bushes. On the Pennefather, Embley and Tully Rivers ducks and 

 geese may be knocked over with long thin switches, both by day and by moonlight. The 

 Pennefather natives, in addition, will build special bush shelters in the lagoons, and hiding under 

 cover will wait there for hours for a favourable strike with their spears. In the neighbourhood 

 of the Laura River, also at Cape Bedford and elsewhere, ducks can be caught by silently 

 diving under them in the water, and pulling them down." 



From Bimbi, Duaringa, (Queensland, Mr. H. G. Barnard wrote me under date 9th 

 September, 190S :—" To-day I found a Shoveller's (Spatula rhynclwtis) nest, containing nine 

 fresh eggs. The nest was about ten yards from the edge of a swamp, and I almost put my foot 

 on top of the Duck before she dashed off it. There was hardly any nest and very little down in 

 It, and the grass around was barely long enough to cover the Duck as she sat on the eggs." 



SnOVKLLKR. 



