SHOVELLER. 185 



the upper part of the neck only is black ;* hut in full 

 plumaged birds of hoth sexes, the markings are very 

 much alike. 



The brant is often seen in our markets for sale. Its 

 flesh, though esteemed by many, tastes somewhat sedgy, 

 or fishy. 



SCBGENUS H. ANAS, BREHM. 



258. AJVAS CLTPRATA, LINN^CS AND WILSON. SHOVELLER. 

 WILSON, PLATE LXVII. FIG. VII. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 



IF we except the singularly formed and dispropor- 

 tionate size of the bill, there are few ducks more 

 beautiful or more elegantly marked than this. The 

 excellence of its flesh, which is uniformly juicy, tender, 

 and well tasted, is another recommendation to which it 

 is equally entitled. It occasionally visits the sea coast^ 

 but is more commonly found on our lakes and rivers, 

 particularly along their muddy shores, where it spends 

 great part of its time in searching for small worms, and 

 the larvae of insects, sifting the watery mud through 

 the long and finely set teeth of its curious bill, which 

 is admirably constructed for the purpose, being large, 

 to receive a considerable quantity of matter, each 

 mandible bordered with close-set, pectinated rows, 

 exactly resembling those of a weaver's reed, which, 

 fitting into each other, form a kind of sieve, capable of 

 retaining very minute worms, seeds, or insects, which 

 constitute the principal food of the bird. 



The shoveller visits us only in the winter, and is not 

 known to breed in any part of the United States. It 

 is a common bird of 'Europe, and, according to M. 

 Baillon, the correspondent of Buffon, breeds yearly in 

 the marshes in France. The female is said to make her 

 nest on the ground, with withered grass, in the midst 

 of the largest tufts of rushes or coarse herbage, in the 



* The figure of this bird, given by Bewick, is in that state. 



