49 BIRD NAMES. [No. 14. 



markings near front edge (no blue) ; speculum greenish, bor- 

 dered before and very narrowly behind with white, and often 

 very dull, with little or no lustre. Lower surface of body vary- 

 ing from buff to nearly pure white, mottled about vent and be- 

 neath tail with warm brown. 



Length about twenty inches ; extent thirty inches or more. 



Bill, as I have commonly observed it on freshly killed birds, 

 but as I have never seen it described : upper division (or upper 

 mandible) olive brown, with bright orange edge, the surface 

 dotted with black as though fly-specked ; lower division bright 

 orange ;* these colors changing rapidly after death. 



Many imperfectly plumaged drakes that I have seen have 

 dark head and neck, finely speckled with white; snowy white 

 and dark markings about breast and back ; front of wing blue 

 to greater or less degree, and dull brownish leather color on 

 belly. 



I have always found this duck fine eating. Audubon says : 

 " The sportsman who is a judge will never pass a Shoveller to 

 shoot a Canvas-back." 



Eange, "Northern Hemisphere. In North America breed- 

 ing from Alaska to Texas " (A. O. U. Check List). 



SHOVELLER: BLUE-WING SHOVELLER (Catesby's Nat. Hist, 

 of Carolina, etc.) : RED-BREASTED SHOVELLER (Pennant's Brit- 

 ish Zoology). 



Along the coast from New Brunswick to Connecticut this 

 species is too rare to bear a well-established name among gun- 

 ners. It is known at Lake St. Clair; the Detroit River; Chi- 

 cago ; Long Island ; in New Jersey at Red Bank (Monmouth 

 Co.), Barnegat, Atlantic City, and Sommers Point; in Mary- 

 land at Havre de Grace and Baltimore ; in Virginia at Alex- 



* Catesby, 1731, describes bill as "reddish brown, spotted with black" 

 (his specimen being in brown plumage, with front of wing blue); and in 

 Water Birds of North America (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway), bill colors of 

 adult female are thus described : " bill brown, mandible orange ;" but no 

 mention is made of the black dots. 



