SHOVELER. 345 



I have received tlie eggs from Hickling Broad^ in Norfolk. 

 A pair of these birds^ which I have on a pond in my 

 gronnds, spend a good deal of their time in swimming 

 round and round, with their heads close together and their 

 hills immersed in the water as far as the feathers of the 

 forehead, thus having their nostrils under water. They raise 

 their heads about every half minute to breathe, and this 

 they continue to do for some quarter of an hour or so. 

 At other times they plough the surface of the water, which 

 they sift through their pectinated bills, retaining the ani- 

 malcula which inhabit it. They are very fond of duck-weed, 

 with which at one time the pond Mas covered ; however, a 

 pair of these birds very quickly cleared it. The only food I 

 give them is maize, on which they seem to flourish. They 

 are very skilful in catching insects on the wing. In its 

 natural state the Shoveler feeds on frogs and small Crustacea, 

 as well as on the seeds of various grasses, and is particularly 

 fond of those of Carex pendula. The call-note of this Duck 

 has been said to be somewhat like that of the Moorhen, 

 but the only note I have heard from my pair may be 

 represented by the syllables " konk, konk" uttered with 

 much bowing and flexion of the neck. 



Wheu shooting at Bolney Mill pond, on November Gth, 

 1864, a friend shot a female of this species as it flew over 

 his head, in company with two others ; four male birds then 

 rose from the further end of the pond and flew over our 

 heads out of gunshot. In December of the same year an 

 immature Shoveler was shot from the same pond, where 

 three or four more of these birds were killed, after the one 

 I mentioned on November 6th. On the 29th of that month 

 I was shown a male and female which had been shot on 

 Ewhurst pond, in the parish of Shermanbury. Mr. Jeffery 

 (p. n.) states that two males were shot at Bosliam, in Novem- 

 ber 1858, and another at Chichester, on December 7th, 1867. 



