146 WILD FOWL SHOOTING, 



the duck tribe, a tiller of the soil, a granger ; and nature 

 had furnished it with never-failing tools. The little teal, 

 with its fire-shovel of a bill ; the canvas-back with its 

 spade ; the mallard with its common shovels ; were all 

 insignificant in the rice beds, when compared to the 

 scoop-shovel of the spoonbill, or shoveler. When it 

 comes to digging in the mud, it is the section boss of 

 the swamps, and all the rest of the ducks swim or 

 waddle to one side when one of these little fellows gets 

 his every day clothes on, and scoops and shovels among 

 the roots and tender grass. They recognize him as an 

 artist in this line, and accord him a fair field, but no 

 favor. He has no competitors for speed and displace- 

 ment of soil, for they all know full well, that they are 

 mere infants with wooden spoons compared with him, 

 when he brings into active operations that post-borer 

 of a bill, propelled by such expert motive power. 



The shoveler duck frequents marshy places, and is 

 readily decoyed and easily killed. Their flight is swift, 

 usually huddled together, and many may be killed at 

 one discharge of the gun. When frightened, they 

 spring from the marsh perpendicularly like the pin- 

 tail. No. 6 or 7 shot are the proper size to use. 



Anas Clypeata. The Blue-winged Shoveler is twenty 

 inches long, and two feet six inches in extent. The bill 

 is brownish black, three inches in length, greatly wid- 

 ened near the extremity, closely pectinated on the 

 sides, and furnished with a nail on the tip of each 

 mandible ; irides, bright orange ; tongue, large and 

 fleshy ; the inside of the upper and the outside of the 



