118 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



says it is very rare on the Merionethshire coast, and he only once met with it on 

 April 7th, 1891, three beautiful drakes in company with four pair of Wild Duck, 

 male and female, two males and one female Wigeon, and a Pintail drake. 



In Scotland it breeds in several localities, notably in one, Loch Spynie, in 

 Moray, a spot rendered historical by the writings of Charles St. John. Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie-Brown thinks that it is a rapidly increasing nesting species, in late years, 

 in many parts of Scotland. In 1891 Shovelers nested on a small loch, Sanday, in 

 Orkney, about thirty young ones being seen together in the course of the summer. 



In Ireland, Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says that this Duck is more or less common 

 in all parts of the country, particularly the south, and they breed in several places 

 throughout the island. 



Between the years 1833-34 to 1867-68, (thirty-five years), two hundred and 

 eighty-five Shovelers are recorded in the decoy book, at Ashby-on-the-Trent, nortli 

 Lincolnshire, as taken in the pipes ; the largest number in any one year was 

 thirty-four in 1860-61. These captures, however, only represent a small proportion 

 of those visiting the decoy, flocks coming and going without entering the pipes. 

 In 1868-69, sixteen, chiefly males, visited the pond for some days, and escaped 

 capture. Shovelers, I was told by Tacey, the decoy-man, have a curious habit of 

 swimming round and round each other in circles, with the head and neck depressed 

 to the surface of the water ; this they will continue for hours. 



Professor Newton, commenting on this particular action of the Duck (see 

 Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," vol. iii, p. 151, from which I quote), thinks it is 

 no amatory action, but the real and only object, he considers, is that of procuring 

 food, as a pair, when feeding, " get opposite to one another, and swim round in 

 a circle, holding their heads towards its centre, and their bills plunged into the 

 water perpendicularly and up to the base, while their mandibles are employed in 

 'bibbling,' to use a Norfolk term. They will swim in this way for ten minutes 

 together, always preserving their relative position on the circumference of the 

 circle they are describing, then after a pause, and perhaps a slight removal of a 

 yard or two, they will resume their occupation." 



Shovelers appear, as a rule, to prefer small shady pools to more open waters, 

 and the shallow ends of lakes, sheltered by dense reed beds and overgrown with 

 Equisetum, Menyanthes trifoliata, Comarum palustre, sedges, and other water-loving 

 plants. 



Shovelers, when flushed, make a clapping noise with their wings when rising, 

 but I have never heard them, either wild or tame, utter any note or sound. A 

 friend, Mr. T. Ostler Nicholson, who lives near one of their breeding haunts, says, 

 (in Hit.) " the note in the breeding season is tuck-tuck, which is frequently uttered 



