156 BIRDS OF NOEFOLK. 



early as tlie 28th. of August, Mr. Gurney saw one with 

 a red breast, but has met with others in October, 

 November, and March, with the ordinary light brown 

 colour on the under-parts, and, as the rufous tinged birds 

 in November have also bluish wings, they might, as he 

 remarks, be easily mistaken, without dissection, for young 

 males. Yarrell does not allude to this peculiarity of 

 plumage in the female, but Montagu describes a specimen 

 sent to him on the 24th of November, 1809, which, from 

 its weight and size and rufous colour on the breast, he 

 concluded was a male, till satisfied to the contrary by 

 dissection. This proved, by the worn appearance of 

 some feathers still unmoulted, to be a fully adult bird ; 

 yet a female in my possession, killed on the 28th of 

 March, 1861, has the same indications of age, but with 

 the breast of the ordinary tint. If not, then, a matter of 

 age, is it a seasonal change, only, in individuals, or a 

 climatal variation in specimens from certain parts of the 

 continent ? 



In size and weight both male and female shovelers 

 vary considerably. Of a pair purchased at Lynn, in 

 April, 1869, by Mr. Wilson, a bird preserver, the male 

 was but eighteen inches in length, and the female less ; 

 the former weighing one pound and a quarter and the 

 latter one pound. Montagu also describes a small pair, 

 taken in a Lincolnshire decoy, of which ''' the male 

 was fat, and yet weighed only seventeen ounces, the 

 female was rather poor, and weighed no more than ten 

 ounces and a half, which is less than that of a teal." 

 His rufous-breasted female weighed twenty ounces and 

 a half, and measured twenty inches in length. The 

 ordinary length of the male is from twenty to twenty- 

 one inches, of the female about eighteen inches, and 

 the weight, according to Hunt, from seventeen to 

 twenty-two ounces. 



* Supplement to tlie " Ornitliological Dictionary" — 1813. 



