Measurements Total length, 15 inches; wing, about 7, 

 and bill, 1% inches. 



THE SPOON-BILL OR SHOVELLER 



(Spatula cylpeata) 



The shoveler, or spoonbill, as they are commonly 

 called, is also an early duck upon our ponds; they, too, 

 breed throughout the mountains of our hunting grounds. 

 When they first arrive on our ponds they are very fat 

 and finely flavored, but they soon become poor of flesh 

 and lose the flavor brought with them from their moun- 

 tain homes. And then they are generally let pass un- 

 disturbed by the discriminating sportsman. 



Color Male Head and neck, green; breast, white, 

 shading into rusty chestnut toward the abdomen; lesser 

 wing-coverts, blue; speculum, green, with white border; 

 legs, orange red. 



Female The female is much smaller than the male 

 and lacks all its high coloring. The general color is 

 buff, mottled with brown; wing-coverts and speculum, 

 same as the male. 



Nest and Eggs The nest, which is a rude affair, gen- 

 erally contains from seven to ten eggs of a light buff 

 color. 



Measurements Total length of the male, about 20 

 and the female, 18 inches; wing, 9 to 9*4; bill, about 

 2% to 2% inches, and very broad at the end. 



THE PIN-TAIL 

 (Dafila acuta) 



The pin-tail, or sprig is another very common duck 

 of the Coast. Great numbers of this species breed on 

 our mountain lakes and, maturing early, they are about 

 the first to appear upon our shooting grounds, great 

 flocks reaching as far south as San Diego county, the 

 mouth of the Colorado river and the lakes and marshes 

 of Lower California, Arizona and northern Mexico as 

 early as the middle of August or the first of Septem- 

 ber. They come from the mountains plump and fat, and 

 as soon as the shooting season is open prove quite ac- 

 ceptable to the epicure. 



The pin-tail ranges throughout the territory covered 

 by this work and far to the north of it, and the fact that 

 they breed around the mountain lakes for the whole dis- 

 tance accounts for their early appearance on the shoot- 

 ing grounds of the Coast. 



fi9 



