ANSERES. ( 107 ) AN ATI D^. 



THE SHOVELLER 



SPOON-BILL DUCK, BROAD BILL, SHOVEL BILL, BLUE-WINGED 

 SHOVELLEK. 



Spatula clypeata. 



The Schooler who so shakes the air with saily wings, 

 That even as he flies you still would think he sings. 



Drayton, Polyolbion. 



The Shoveller, which is so called from the broad expansion 

 of its bill towards the tip, has not yet been shown to be 

 more than a rare winter visitor to Berwickshire. 



Mr. Allan of Peelwalls has informed me that a specimen 

 in his possession was killed on Billie Mains mill pond about 

 thirty years ago, and a male and female are said to have 

 been shot at Legerwood Loch in the winter of 1870.^ Mr. 

 Hardy records that on the 25th of July 1872, Mr. Wilson, 

 Coldingham, obtained an example from the mill pond at 

 rieurs near that village,^ and the Eev. William Stobbs 

 mentions that a pair were got near Gordon Moss.^ On the 

 25th of May 1886 Mr. James Aitchison, slater, Duns, 

 showed me a male in fine plumage which had been obtained 

 at the Hule Moss in the beginning of that month out of 

 a flock of about twenty. Five Shovellers were observed on 

 Duns Castle Lake on the 1st of December 1887 by Mr. 

 William Smith, gamekeeper, who states that they are now 

 seen there in small numbers nearly every winter. 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. viii. p. 147. ^ Ibid. vol. vi. p. 431. 



3 Ibid. vol. ix. p. 230. 



