226 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



paddles, its webs are small. Splashes and reed-beds 

 are what it delights in. Many days have I passed 

 where these birds could be seen, catching the great 

 green grasshoppers, and getting my fingers pinched 

 over it, digging out crickets, and chasing Swallow- 

 tail and other butterflies in and out of the tangles. 

 All sorts of flying and creeping things lived there ; 

 in fact the amount of insect life to be found in the 

 haunts of the Shoveller would have to be seen, 

 nay, more than that, it would have to be felt, before 

 it could be thoroughly believed in. Some kinds 

 of insects have a very short play-time. Coming 

 forth in clouds as perfect flying creatures, they 

 fulfil the purpose they were created for, and then 

 they drop down in the reeds or on the water, either 

 dead or dying. So thickly at times do these short- 

 lived insects cover the water that, in places, the 

 masses look like large patches of grey film. 



This is the time for the Shoveller. He and his 

 mate will, so to speak, lay their heads and necks 

 on the water, the lower mandible being just under 

 water ; and they will paddle along, feeding as they 

 go. These insects are part of their food in the 

 season. Then, too, they can probe and spatter on 

 the edge of the reeds, where they find plenty of 

 food, for the soft mud at their roots is full of the 

 seeds of water-plants growing below. As to the 

 undeveloped forms of insect life, the light vegetable 

 mud is full of these. So this handsome fowl goes 

 on his way very happily if not disturbed ; and the 

 Shovellers were not disturbed in one particular 



