The Shoveller 335 



For some unknown reason Shovellers seem never to get fat like other 

 Ducks, and perhaps this is one reason why some hunters do not care 

 much for them. They are very swift flyers, and sometimes travel, 

 doubtless, at the rate of from sixty to eighty miles an hour. 



The summer home of the Shoveller tribe is in the vast expanse of 

 territory between Minnesota and Alaska, although some pairs breed as 

 far south as Texas ; but they are rarely found nesting in the eastern 

 United States. 



In writing of their breeding habits in North Dakota, in The Auk, 

 1902, Mr. A. C. Bent says: 



"They frequent the same localities as the Blue-winged Teal, are 

 equally tame, and probably lay their eggs about the same time as this 

 species. We found only two nests of the Shoveller, 

 in spite of their universal abundance. From the fact Haunt 



that we frequently saw them flying about in pairs, 

 I inferred that many of them do not complete their sets before June 

 15, which would make this one of the later-laying species. 



"After the sets are completed, the males associate with Mallards and 

 Pintails in the smaller ponds and open sloughs. Nearly every slough, 

 meadow, or pond-hole that we visited contained one or more pairs of 

 these handsome little Ducks. The charm of collecting and studying 

 birds in this highly favored region is greatly enhanced by constantly 

 flushing this and the other numerous species of Ducks from every favor- 

 able locality. We were kept in a constant state of delightful expectancy, 

 and were seldom disappointed. 



"The nesting-ground of the Shoveller is the broad expanse of virgin 

 prairie, often far away from the nearest water, sometimes on high, dry, 

 ground and sometimes in moist meadow-land or near a slough or pond. 

 The first nest that we found was in the center of a hollow in the prairie 

 between two knolls, where the ground was moist but not actually wet, 

 and where the grass grew thick and luxuriantly. The nest was well 

 hidden in the thick, green grass, so that we never should have found it 

 if we had not flushed the bird within ten feet of us. 

 It was merely a depression in the ground, well lined 

 with dry grasses, and sparingly lined with gray down 

 around the eggs; more down would probably have been added as in- 

 cubation advanced. The ten eggs which it contained were perfectly 

 fresh when collected on June 3." 



The Shovellers that in winter inhabit the marshes, ponds, and rice- 

 fields of the South Atlantic Coast, reach that region after a long 

 overland journey from their summer-home in the Northwestern States 

 or in Canada. They come to the coast in the neighborhood of Mary- 

 land and then turn southward. The eastern flight thus passes southward 

 of the Northeastern States, so that in this part of our country the Shovel- 

 ler is rarely found. 



