376 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATID^E. Genus SPATULA. 



Subfamily ANATIN&. 



SHOVELER. 



SPATULA CLYPEATA (Linneeus). 

 PLATE XXXVI. 



Anas clypeata, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 200 (1766) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 554 



(1885) ; Lilford, Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. x. (1889) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. 



p. 235 (1893) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. Ii. p. 42, pi. 13 (1896). 

 Rhynchaspis clypeata (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 74 (1852). 

 Spatula clypeata (Linn.), Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 497, pi. 425 (1873) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. 



ed. 4. iv. p. 375 (1885) ; Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 306 (1895) ; Sharpe, 



Handb. B. Gt Brit. ii. p. 265 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Shoveler is a fairly 

 common winter visitor to the British Islands, but practically resident in many 

 localities, and is found both inland and on the coast. It becomes rarer in 

 Wales, the southern and western districts of England, and the west of Scot- 

 land, being very rare in the Outer Hebrides and on the Orkneys, and appears 

 never to have visited the Shetlands. Its recorded breeding places are as 

 follows. England: Shires of Dorset, Kent, Hertford, Cambridge, Norfolk, Lin- 

 coln, Nottingham, Huntingdon, Stafford, York, Durham, Northumberland, and 

 Cumberland. Wales : no reliable data. Scotland : Kircudbright, East Lothian, 

 Dumbarton, Argyle, Elgin, Koss, Sutherland and the Orkneys, and the island of 

 Tiree, one of the Hebrides. Ireland : Queen's County, Galway (Lough Derg on 

 the Shannon), Cos. Dublin, Antrim, Donegal, Fermanagh, Westmeath, Louth, Eos- 

 common, Mayo, Sligo, and possibly in King's County and Kerry. During winter 

 also the Shoveler is much more frequent in the south of Ireland than the north. 

 Foreign : Circumpolar, northern Nearctic and Palsearctic regions, more southerly 

 in winter ; Oriental and extreme northern limits of Neotropical regions in winter. 

 It breeds throughout the Subarctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America, from 

 about the latitude of the Arctic Circle south to lat. 50. Below this latitude it 

 becomes more local, and not so abundant during the breeding season, although it 

 nests in small numbers in the west Palaearctic region as far as the African shores 

 of the Mediterranean, and in the east Palaearctic region as far south as Turkestan 

 and Mongolia ; whilst in the Nearctic region it breeds very sparingly in the north 

 of the United States. Its winter quarters in Europe are the basin of the Mediter- 

 ranean and North Africa as far south as the Great Dessert and Abyssinia. Those 



