30 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



In Great Britain^ the Shoveller is most abundant along 

 the eastern coasts from Essex and Lincolnshire (Yarrell 

 imagines that this fact may be owing to the coasts of Hol- 

 land being immediately opposite, these birds, as already 

 stated, being very plentiful in that country) ; but it is 

 found with more or less frequency in most localities much 

 resorted to by wild fowl. 



Lakes, rivers, marshes, fens, and the sea-shores, when 

 consisting of large banks of mud, are places most resorted 

 to for feeding, the diet consisting of worms, aquatic and 

 other insects, grasses, and various vegetable substances. 



The bill of this bird is peculiar in its structure : it is as 

 long as the rest of the head, and from the centre to the tip it 

 is flattened out, and rounded into a shape not dissimilar to 

 the end of a shovel. A remarkable circumstance connected 

 with this part of the body is, that the peculiarity of shape 

 here alhided to is not prominent in the young birds when 

 first hatched, but is gradually acquired as the birds grow up. 

 A communication to the Linnean Society states that about 

 thirty Shovellers' eggs were hatched under some domestic 

 fowls, and the bills of the ducklings presented no difference 

 in appearance from the bills of an ordinary duck. This fact 

 has been amply confirmed by many subsequent observations. 



This peculiar shape of the beak, from which the bird 

 derives its name, is of the greatest assistance to its owner 

 in collecting its food, and rejecting any unsuitable matter 

 that may have been picked up. The Shoveller generally 

 feeds either in shallow water or on the margins of the 

 pools, ditches, lakes, and rivers to which it resorts. Indeed, 

 it spends a great deal of time on terra firman seeming to 

 prefer to search for its food along the edge of the water 

 than to swim about in the deeper parts. It seldom dives, 



