302 DUCK GROUP 



from about a dozen counties ; and it is reported to be increasing 

 there as a breeding-bird. In England it is known to have nested of 

 recent years in counties so widely sundered as Northumberland, 

 Norfolk, Kent, and Dorsetshire, as well as in others ; and Romney 

 Marsh and Hornsea were reputed to have been favourite breeding- 

 places in former times. Several counties on the Scottish mainland 

 are also known to contain nesting-resorts of the shoveller ; and the 

 species likewise breeds on the island of Tiree, off the Argyllshire coast, 

 while in 1903 it was ascertained that it nested in Uist in the Outer 

 Hebrides.' 



In one instance it has been recorded that the duty of incubation was 

 undertaken, at least to some extent, by the drake, and if authenticated 

 this can scarcely be a solitary example ; but for the most part writers 

 are silent on this point, although some of them mention the occurrence 

 of both sexes in the neighbourhood of the nest. The bird appears 

 to have a remarkable power of adapting itself to circumstances in the 

 matter of the time at which it nests, as indeed must necessaril\- be the 

 case with a species whose breeding-range in America extends from 

 Texas in the south to the interior of Alaska in the north. When the 

 )'oung are hatched, they are tended in a most careful manner by the 

 female bird. 



The flight of the shoveller has been compared to that of teal, 

 although it is much less rapid and characterised by a peculiarly 

 irregular and hesitating style. These ducks are essentially freshwater 

 birds, and in the winter arc to be found singly, in pairs, or in small 

 parties on the edges of lakes and marshes, or even, at least in India, 

 in village pools of the most filthy description. Indeed, the peculiar 

 conformation of its beak is a special adaptation for feeding in soft 

 mud, slime, and dirty water generally. A shoveller never probes in 

 shallow water with its head downwards and its tail in the air ; but the 

 species is said to have the habit of taking up its station on water in 

 which pochards are diving so as to take advantage of the vegetable 

 substances which rise to the surface after having been torn up from the 

 bottom by the latter. As a rule it is a silent bird, although now 

 and then uttering a few feeble " quacks." The nest, which is made of 

 grass, with little lining other than down, is usually placed in a tussock 

 of rank grass or heather ; and at the proper season contains a small 

 clutch of five or six huffish or greenish white eggs, each of which 

 measures from 2 to 2;|; inches or thereabouts in length. The down 

 is dark brown with a very indistinct light tip to each filament, but a 



• Ilarvic-llrown, .-/;///. Srott. A'u/. //is/., 1903, \). 245. 



