310 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
SHOVELER 
Spatula clypeata (Linneus) 
This bird is principally an autumn visitor with us, when large 
numbers come over from abroad, but a few are always found 
in the nesting season breeding with us. It is essentially an 
inland species, preferring small and sheltered pieces of water 
rather than wide open stretches. Its distinguishing feature is 
the large flattened bill. It feeds on the surface-swimming 
animalcule and insects. The broad lamellz of the man- 
dibles form an efficient strainer. When feeding three or 
four will often follow each other in a circle, each feeding 
in the other’s wake. It has become more numerous recently 
as a breeding bird, and it now nests commonly in the Broads 
and other districts of Norfolk and the eastern counties. In 
Kent and the Midlands, Yorkshire and the north it nests 
sparingly, as well as in some of the southern and eastern 
counties of Scotland. In Ireland it is a local but by no means 
rare species. Except in the breeding season it is a very silent 
bird ; when courting it moves its head up and down, uttering a 
low ‘‘took, took,’ which is answered by the female. The 
nest is generally placed at some distance from the water 
in the middle of a dry grass field, where there is hardly 
any cover beyond a small patch of grass more luxuriant 
than the rest. 
During the summer the Drake assumes an ‘‘eclipse”’ 
plumage, which somewhat resembles that of the Duck. In 
October he begins, wz/zke most other species, to assume an 
‘intermediate’ plumage, in which the head is very dark but 
not metallic, and the white of the breast is hidden by dark 
transverse bars. He does not assume his full plumage till 
the end of February or early in March. 
In these isles our breeding birds are practically resident, 
and are only driven from their nesting-quarters by frost. The 
