THE SHOVELER. "7 



April, May, and September, and at Kandahar, in February and March. Great 

 numbers winter throughout India, and into Ceylon, and they have been recorded 

 on the j heels and tanks of the former country as late as the 2Oth of May, 

 ("The Asian," June 4th, 97). Common on migration at Astrakhan, and breeding 

 regularly in Turkestan, the plains of the Caucasus, and Asia Minor. It is a 

 winter visitor to Persia and the shores of the Persian Gulf. 



Messrs. Alston and Harvie-Brown found it very common in the delta of the 

 Dwina, in summer. It visits Portugal from the middle of October to the middle 

 of March, and is common in southern Spain, and said to breed annually in the 

 marshes of the Guadalquivir. Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown did not find 

 it common on the Petchora, and only obtained one, a male, at Ust Zylma ; sub- 

 sequently Seebohm very seldom saw it in the valley of the Yenisei. Professor 

 Collett ranks it amongst the uncertain breeders in Norway. Mr. B. Hartert 

 reports it as breeding, in small numbers, in eastern Prussia. It is rather remarkable 

 that it has only been obtained (a female in Mr. Gatke's collection) once in Heligo- 

 land, probably from the fact that its breeding range is not directly north of that 

 island, but to the east. 



The Shoveler is common in the Mediterranean basin, in the winter months. 

 In Corsica becoming plentiful in February and March. Plentiful and resident in 

 Egypt and Nubia, and found generally all over North Africa and as far south as 

 Abyssinia. It has occurred also in the Canary Islands, and, quite recently, one in 

 the Capetown Museum, was shot eight miles from Capetown, and others seen, 

 (" Ibis," 93, p. 153). In America it breeds from Texas to Alaska, wintering as 

 far south as Guatemala, Cuba, and Jamaica, and on the mainland to Panama. 

 It has occurred in Borneo ; and a specimen was obtained by Mr. Swayne, the 

 British Resident, on the Gilbert- group, in the south Pacific Islands, recently united 

 to Australia. Mr. Gould once received an example from Australia. 



Returning again to America, it is a summer migrant to Newfoundland, and 

 found all over the island, and, according to Colonel H. W. Feilden, visits Barbados 

 in October and November, in small numbers. 



In South America its place is taken by a nearly allied form, 5. platalea, ViEiLL, 

 having a spotted breast, and very common about Buenos Ayres and the southern 

 parts of that Continent. Both Australia and South Africa also have Shovelers 

 peculiar to those countries only. 



In England the Shoveler breeds in several counties, the chief of which are 

 Norfolk, Cambridge, Lincolnshire, (about thirty pairs altogether in three localities), 

 also Nottinghamshire (the forest district). Again in Yorkshire (Hornsea Mere) ; 

 Northumberland, and also sparingly in Cumberland, near the Solway. Mr. Haigh 



