SPATDLA CrA'PEATA 289 



To the shores they stick, into the open water they never seem 

 to straggle by choice ; and if you watch theui, they are for the most 

 part either Jozing on the l)rink, or paddling slowly in the shallows, 

 with their entire l)ills and more or less of their heads under water, 

 their heads working from side to side all the wjiile like a Flamingo's 

 or Spoonbill's." 



I have, however, seen the Shoveller in open water, but this only 

 rarely, and only during the heat of the day when the birds wish 

 to sleep. 



As noted above l)y Hume, they feed with bills and heads under 

 water, running the former through the shallows in the mud, and 

 so collecting the numerous small forms of animal life which there 

 abound, and which, when the bill is lifted, are retained whilst the 

 water filters out. They are omnivorous, aud will eat almost any- 

 thing, but, at the same time, animal food undoulttedjy forms the 

 major portion of their diet. 



Except for the very handsome appearance of the fuU-plumaged 

 drake, the Shoveller is worth little from any point of view. As 

 an edible, it is one of the worst of the duck trilte — coarse, oily, 

 and fishy in taste, and ranking equal to the white-eye, and inferior 

 to the whistling-teal. 



As regards its feeding and its (juality, Hume writes : — 



Doubtless, in more savoury localities, such as the more 

 aristocratic ducks frequent, insects and their larvie, worms, small 

 frogs, shells, tiny fish, and all kinds of seeds and shoots of water- 

 grasses, rushes, and the like constitute their food ; but where they 

 take up their aliode on one of the village ponds, and the pond is 

 a real dirty one, I can assert, from the examination of many 

 recently killed birds, that it is impossible to say what these birds, 

 will not eat. 



" All ducks are more or less omnivorous, but no other ducks will, 

 as a rule, frequent the dirty holes in which a pair of Shovellers often 

 pass the winter." 



A curious note on its food, &c., is that in Latham's ' Synopsis of 

 Birds,' in which he states : — 



" Its chief food is insects, for whicli it is continually muddling 

 in the water with its bill. It is also said to dexterously catch Hies, 

 which pass in its way over the water. Shrimps, among other things, 

 have been found in its stomach on dissection." 



