SHOVELER. 151 



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 adnlt 

 plumage of the Shoveler. 



That the bill of the young Shoveler when hatched is nut 

 dilated laterally, as has been described, I can myself answer. 

 During the summer of 1841 a pair of Shovelers made a nest, 

 and brought out their young on one of the islands in the 

 Garden of the Zoological Society ; the bills of these duck- 

 lings were as narrow, and the sides as parallel, as the bills 

 of some young Gad walls which were hatched at the same 

 time on an island in the same piece of water. The egg is 

 buffy white, tinged with green ; two inches two lines long, 

 by one inch and six lines in breadth. 



Although the Shoveler formerly bred in Romney Marsh, 

 it is now comparatively rare there, and also along the line 

 of the southern counties to Cornwall. It is not uncommon 

 in North Wales in winter, and probably breeds in Ireland. 

 Mr. Heysham has met with it only a few times in the 

 western parts of Cumberland. It is not mentioned as visit- 

 ing Orkney or Shetland ; and Mr. Dann tells me this duck 

 is by no means common in the parts of Scandinavia where he 

 resided, but is chiefly confined to the south of Sweden. It 

 is found in Gothland, in Russia and Germany ; is abundant 

 in Holland ; breeds regularly in the marshes of France ; is 

 seen on its passage about Genoa and in Italy twice in every 

 year, in the spring and again in November; frequents the 

 northern parts of Africa, is called in consequence the Bar- 

 bary Shoveler; and specimens have been brought from South 

 Africa by Dr. Andrew Smith. Mr. Strickland observed this 

 species at Smyrna in winter ; Messrs. Dickson and Ross 

 sent the Zoological Society specimens from Erzerum ; and 



