138 BULLETIN 126, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The down in the shoveller's nest is larger than that of the teals, but 

 smaller and darker than that of the pintail; it varies in color from 

 dark "drab" to light " hair brown," with large grayish-white centers. 

 The breast feathers in the nest are quite distinctive; they have large 

 rounded gray centers, with broad buff and white tips and margins. 



Eggs. — The shoveller is said to lay from 6 to 14 eggs, but the set 

 usually consists of from 10 to 12 eggs. Only one brood is normally 

 raised. In color and texture the eggs are strikingly like those of the 

 mallard and pintail; I have never been able to detect any constant 

 difference between the three in these respects, the individual vari- 

 ations in all three overlapping; but the shoveller's eggs are, of course, 

 smaller and usually more elongated. In shape they are nearly eUipti- 

 cal ovate or elliptical oval. The color varies from a very pale olive 

 buff to a very pale greenish gray. The shell is thin and smooth, 

 with very little luster. 



The measurements of 177 eggs in various collections average 52.2 

 by 37 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 58 by 

 38.5, 54.5 by 39, 48 by 37, and 50.5 by 34.5 millimeters. 



Young. — Morris (1903) gives the period of incubation as "three 

 weeks"; others give it as from 21 to 23 days. Incubation is per- 

 formed entirely by the female, though the male does not wholly desert 

 her during the first part, at least, of the process and is often quite 

 solicitous if the nest is disturbed. But before the broods are hatched 

 the males congregate in small flocks in the sloughs and ponds, leaving 

 the care of the young to their mates. The young are led to the 

 nearest water by the female, carefully guarded and taught to feed on 

 insects and soft animal and vegetable food. The young are expert 

 divers; we had considerable difficulty in catching what specimens of 

 grown young we needed. By the time that the young are fully 

 fledged, the molting season of the adults is over, and the old and 

 young birds are joined together in flocks. 



Plumages. — Even when first hatched the young shoveller's bill is 

 decidedly longer and more spatulate than that of the young mallard, 

 and it grows amazingly fast, so that when two weeks old there is no 

 difficulty in identifying the species. The color of the downy young 

 above varies from "ohve brown," or "sepia," to "bufly brown," 

 darker on the crown, which is "clove brown" or "olive brown"; the 

 color of the back extends far down onto the sides of the chest and on 

 the flanks. The under parts vary from "maize yellow" or "cream 

 bufl"" to "cartridge bufl' " or " ivory yellow " ; this color deepens to 

 " chamois " on the cheeks. There is a stripe of "olive brown " through 

 the eye, including the loral and postocular region, also an auricular 

 spot of the same. There is a light buffy spot on each side of the back, 

 behind the wings, and one on each side of the rump. The buft'y or 



