THE SHOVELEK. 137 



remarks, " we know for a certainty that they continue 

 in the county of Norfolk the whole year, and breed in the 

 marshes at Winterton, Caister, &c. We have had the 

 young ones repeatedly from the age of a few days to that 

 of their being able to fly." The same account is con- 

 fiimed by Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear in 1825, with 

 the important statement that "in the spring of 1818 

 the warrener at Winterton found several nests be- 

 longing to this species, containing in the whole fift}^- 

 six eggs." From that time till 1834, probably but 

 little change took place in their nesting habits in 

 that neighbourhood, although then briefly noticed by 

 Messrs. Paget as " not uncommon." Again, in 1845, 

 Mr. Lubbock, who speaks of the shoveler as occasionally 

 breeding in the Norfolk marshes, specially notes the 

 fact that "a brood or two are hatched every year in 

 the marshes round Winterton decoy," and that he had 

 known young fowl of this species during August, at 

 Horsey, and had seen broods of them upon Hickling 

 broad. 



Besides the '' Broad" district, however, we have re- 

 cords of the shoveler nesting formerly, as it does 

 now, on the meres of the south-western part of the 



the term popeler, it is curious, as pointed out by Mr. Waj', that " in 

 medieval decorations, such birds were not unf requently represented." 

 Thus, in the Caistor inventory of Sir John Fastolfe's effects, taken 

 1459, appears " Clothis of Arras and of Tapstre warke. Item, ij 

 clothis portrayed full of popelers ;" and, again, in one of the bed 

 chambers, "Item, j hangyng clothe of Popelers" Archaeol., xxi., 

 pp. 258, 264. Sir Richard de Scrop, also in 1400, bequeathed 

 '■'■ Aulam de poplers tentam, et lectiun integrum cum coster is de rubeo, 

 cam poplers et armis meis broudatum.'^ And that at least one species 

 of duck was similarly pourtrayed in former times, Mr. Way cites "the 

 vestments discovered at Durham, attributed to St. Cuthbert, and the 

 entry in the Bursar's accounts, given by Mr. Raine, respecting an 

 altar there, on ' le rerdos ' of which were depicted the eider ducks, 

 termed the birds of St. Cuthbert." 



