554 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ANAS CLYPEATA. 



SHOVELLER. 



(PLATE 63.) 



Anas clypeata, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 329 (1760) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 200 (1766) ; et 



auctorurn plurimorum Gmelm, Latham, Temminck, (Jfume), (Dresser), &c. 



Anas mexicana, 



Anas rubens, 



Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 519 (1788). 



Anas j amaicensis, 



Spatula clypeata (Briss.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 564. 



Rhynchaspis clypeata (Briss.), Stepli. Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. ii. p. 115 (1824). 



Spathulea clypeata (Briss.), Flem. Brit. An. p. 123 (1828). 



Clypeata macrorhynchos, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 876 (1831). 



The Shoveller is a well-known winter visitor to the British Islands, 

 many remaining behind in spring to breed in suitable localities. It has 

 been obtained in almost all parts of the United Kingdom, including the 

 Orkneys, but not the Shetlands. In England it still breeds sparingly in 

 the counties of Dorset, Kent, Norfolk, Hertford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, 

 Yorkshire, and probably in Northumberland, Durham, and Stafford, whilst 

 in Scotland it breeds in East Lothian, Dumbarton, and Elgin, and probably 

 in several other of the eastern counties. In Ireland the Shoveller is 

 most common in winter in the south, and has been recorded as breeding 

 in Queen's County, co. Dublin, on Lough Derg in Donegal * ; and 

 Mr. Lloyd Patterson informs me that it breeds in some numbers at 

 Lough Portmore, near Lough Neagh, in co. Antrim. 



The Shoveller is a circumpolar bird, breeding in the Arctic regions of 

 both hemispheres about as far north as lat. 68. South of lat. 50 it breeds 

 more sparingly, but there are probably few parts of its winter range in 

 which a few do not remain to breed. It winters in South Europe and 

 North Africa as far south as Abyssinia. It is principally known as passing 

 through Turkestan and Mongolia on migration, but a few remain to breed. 

 Its principal winter-quarters on the Asiatic continent are Persia, India, 

 Ceylon, China, and Japan. On the American continent it is rarely found 

 breeding below lat. 50, and winters in the Southern States, the West 

 Indies, Mexico, and Central America. The Shoveller has four allies one 

 in the southern portions of South America, one in South Africa, one in 

 Australia, and one in New Zealand, all of which have spotted breasts, and 

 differ in other important respects. 



* Since the article on the Red-throated Diver went to press, Mr. Lloyd Patterson has 

 sent me an egg of that bird taken on the 25th of May this year, by Mr. Herdinan's keeper, 

 on the banks of a small lake in North-west Donegal, nearly opposite the Island of Arran. 



