DUCK IN GENERAL AND IN PARTICULAR 9 



The shoveller is the least shy and wary of all our 

 duck. Shovellers are fairly numerous on the dykes 

 and tributaries of the East Anglian main rivers, and 

 are common on most of the Norfolk Broads. The 

 shoveller is highly esteemed by epicures. It is a 

 surface-feeding duck. 



Food : animal and vegetable in great variety, in- 

 cluding molhtsca, aquatic insects and their larvae, and 

 shell-fish. 



THE GADWALL (Anas strepera} 



This duck is rarely to be found except in the 

 eastern counties. Many years ago, gadwall, so the 

 old fen-men used to tell one, were common in some 

 of the fens, and were much prized by fowlers of the 

 time. Later partly on account of its continuous 

 persecution by wild-fowlers, and partly on account of 

 increasing drainage the bird became almost extinct 

 in the locality. Concerning its present plenty, I 

 quote the words of Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey : 



Its abundance (in Norfolk) is the result of a pair of 

 these birds caught in the South Acre Decoy that were 

 pinioned and turned down on the lake at Narford, where 

 they bred freely and attracted many others, which also 

 remained to nest on this lake. The number of gadwall 

 which frequent one private water alone in this county is 



