BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 101 



fair mark. Audubon considered it one of the best of all 

 Ducks on the table, and so it is when feeding on vegetable 

 matter along fresh-water streams. Its flight is often peculiar 

 and characteristic, — a kind of irresolute hovering motion, as 

 if it were undecided regarding its destination. 



The Shoveller is now a rare breeder in the northeast, and 

 is scarcely common as far east as Hudson Bay. Its principal 

 summer home in North America now is from the northern 

 United States north to the Saskatchewan. As it is a cos- 

 mopolitan bird its scarcity now in the northeast may be 

 accounted for in part by that overshooting which always 

 follows settlement and civilization. Its abundance in the 

 west, and the fact that it is still common on the Atlantic 

 coast in winter from Chesapeake Bay southward, are also 

 due in part to the fact that overshooting in the west began 

 more than two hundred years later than on the Atlantic 

 coast. Western-bred birds of this species reach the coast 

 mainly south of the Chesapeake. 



This Duck breeds mainly in habitable regions, and as it 

 is the equal of the famed Canvas-back on the table, it will 

 become extinct in North America unless rigidly protected. 



Audubon states that repeated inspections of stomachs of 

 this species disclosed leeches, small fish, earthworms and 

 snails. It feeds also on aquatic plants, grasses, grass seeds 

 and bulbs, which it procures along the shores of small ponds 

 which it frequents. It often feeds by wading and dabbling 

 in the mud, straining mud and water through its peculiarly 

 constructed bill. 



Dr. Hatch states that it feeds on aquatic insects, larvae, 

 tadpoles, worms, etc., which it finds in shallow, muddy waters; 

 also crustaceans, small mollusks and snails. 



