THE SHOVELLER. : 770 
nightly heart-break among the brooding birds where minks and weasels, 
skunks, rats, otters, badgers, coyotes, and raccoons are allowed to roam. Of 
twenty-eight ducks’ nests (of all species) examined in this neighborhood, only 
four remained unmolested at the close of our two weeks’ stay. Obviously, if we 
are to protect our ducks, certain other natural features must be eliminated. 
No. 313. 
SHOVELLER. 
A. O. U. No. 142. Spatula clypeata (Linn.). 
Synonyms.—SPoonBILL. SPOooN-BILL, Duck. BROAD-BILL. 
Description.—4dult male: Head and neck sooty black, overlaid, especially 
above, with glossy green and glancing metallic blue or purple; lower neck and 
fore-breast pure white ; lower breast, belly, and sides purplish chestnut, the longer 
side-feathers dusky-barred; back, narrowly, greenish dusky, becoming greenish 
black on rump and behind, and glossy green on sides of upper tail-coverts; cris- 
sum black, separated from belly anteriorly by white, finely undulated with dusky ; 
white flank-patches; inner scapulars white, and inner tertiaries white-striped ; 
wing-coverts and outer webs of outer tertiaries light grayish blue; the posterior 
row of coverts greenish dusky at base, broadly white-tipped; speculum glossy 
green bounded on either side by dusky; primaries dusky; axillars and lining of 
wing white; bill spatulate, the upper mandible much broader at tip than lower 
and enclosing it; lamellae prominent, deep black; feet orange-red; iris brown. 
Adult female: Wings much as in male, but duller; scapulars like back and ter- 
tiaries not striped; upperparts, except head and neck, plain fuscous glossed pos- 
teriorly with greenish; remaining plumage buffy or buffy white, spotted with 
brownish fuscous; head and neck narrowly streaked with dusky; lower breast 
tinged with brownish; bill brown above, orange below. Young male: Like adult 
female but colors heavier, and belly tinged with chestnut. Young female: Similar 
to adult but wing-coverts dull slaty gray, only faintly tinged with bluish or green- 
ish; speculum not so extensively glossy green. Iength 17.00-21.00 (431.8-533.4) ; 
wing 9.00-10.00 (228.6-254) ; tail 3.00-3.50 (76.2-88.9) ; culmen 2.50-2.90 (63.5- 
73.7); breadth of bill near tip 1.20 (30.5); tarsus 1.50 (38.1). 
Recognition Marks.—Smaller than Mallard; bill broadened at tip distine- 
tive; male with white breast and rich chestnut belly. 
Nesting.—WNest: on the ground in or near swamp, lined with weed-stalks and 
grasses, or reeds. Eggs: 6-10, pale bluish or greenish gray. Av. size, 2.12 x 1.48 
(53-9 x 37.6). Season: first week in June. 
General Range.—Northern hemisphere. In North America breeding from 
Alaska to Texas; not abundant on the Atlantic Coast north of the Carolinas. 
Range in Washington.—Common migrant and winter resident on Puget 
Sound; not uncommon migrant and summer resident east of the Cascade 
Mountains. 
Authorities.—Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. XII. pt. II. 
E860; ps 2552) a C&s. Rh, Kk. BB: E:- 
Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. B. E. 
