246 ANATID^E. 



Duck. These eggs were put under some domestic fowls, 

 and most of them were hatched ; but he succeeded in rear- 

 ing only two of them. Their bills, when a few days old, 

 were not longer than those of the domestic Duck, but at 

 the age of three weeks they had obviously increased in 

 length more than those of the common duckling. One of 

 these birds, a male, lived till it was ten months old, and 

 then had attained in a considerable degree the adult 

 plumage of the Shoveler. 



That the bill of the young Shoveler when hatched is 

 not dilated laterally, as has been described, I can myself 

 answer. During the summer of 1841 a pair of Shovelers 

 made a nest, and brought out their young on one of the 

 islands in the Garden of the Zoological Society ; the bills 

 of these ducklings were as narrow, and the sides as paral- 

 lel, as the bills of some young Gadwalls which were hatch- 

 ed at the same time on an island in the same piece of 

 water. The egg is buiFy white, tinged with green ; two 

 inches two lines long, by one inch and six lines in breadth. 



The Shoveler has bred with the Garganey, and a young 

 male bearing many indications of both parents, was pre- 

 sented to the Zoological Society by Lord Saye and Sele. 

 This interesting bird was kept during one summer in a 

 small pond with a female Garganey, and a female Sho- 

 veler, but without success, and the bird died in the fol- 

 lowing winter. 



Although the Shoveler formerly bred in Romney Marsh, 

 it is now comparatively rare there, and also along the line 

 of the southern counties to Cornwall. It is not uncommon 

 in North Wales in winter, and probably breeds in Ireland. 

 Mr. Heysham has met with it only a few times in the 

 western parts of Cumberland. It is not mentioned as 

 visiting Orkney or Shetland ; and Mr. Dann tells me this 



