SHOVELLER. 377 



Japan, South China, and India in winter. Gould states that 

 he had examined a single example obtained in Australia. 

 In America this widely-distributed species is found through- 

 out the continent ; breeding from Texas to Alaska, and 

 wintering as far south as Guatemala, Colombia, Cuba, and 

 Jamaica. 



The nest of the Shoveller is placed in a tuft of grass, 

 where the ground is quite dry, and is made of fine grass. 

 After the female begins to sit, she covers her eggs with 

 down plucked from her body. In some places this Duck 

 selects, by preference, small islands. The eggs, from eight 

 to fourteen in number, are of a greenish-buff colour, and 

 average 2 in. by 1-4 in. Mr. J. Youell, of Yarmouth, in a 

 communication to the Linnean Society, says, that he, in one 

 season, obtained upwards of thirty eggs of the Shoveller 

 Duck. These eggs were put under some domestic fowls, 

 and most of them were hatched ; but he succeeded in rear- 

 ing only two of them. Their bills, when a few days old, 

 were not longer than those of the domestic Duck, but at the 

 age of three weeks they had obviously increased in length 

 more than those of the common duckling. One of these 

 birds, a male, lived till it was ten months old, and then had 

 attained in a considerable degree the adult plumage of the 

 Shoveller. 



That the bill of the young Shoveller when hatched is not 

 dilated laterally, as has been described, the Author can 

 answer. During the summer of 1841, a pair of Shovellers 

 made a nest, and brought out their young on one of the 

 islands in the Gardens of the Zoological Society; the 

 bills of these Ducklings were as narrow, and the sides as 

 parallel, as the bills of some young Gadwalls which were 

 hatched at the same time on an island in the same piece of 

 water. 



The Shoveller has bred with the Garganey, and a young 

 male bearing many indications of both parents, was pre- 

 sented to the Zoological Society by the late Lord Saye and 

 Sele. This interesting bird was kept during one summer 

 in a small pond with a female Garganey, and a female 



VOL. IV. 3 c 



