556 BRITISH BIRDS. 



the buds and seeds of water-plants, and even with corn if a field happen 

 to be close to their quarters. They feed off and on during the day; but 

 towards evening they become restless, and often fly to a considerable 

 distance in search of good feeding- grounds. It is not known that the 

 Shoveller differs in any important way from the other Ducks, either in 

 the nature of its food or in the mode of obtaining it ; but its large broad 

 bill probably enables it to sift a greater quantity of mud in a given time 

 than its congeners are able to accomplish. 



The flight of the Shoveller is not quite so rapid as that of some other 

 Ducks, but the -pinions are moved rapidly and very audibly even at some 

 distance. It is not otherwise a very noisy bird. The duck quacks not 

 unlike the domestic species; the voice of the drake is a little deeper; if 

 we represent the former as quaak, the latter might be represented as quauk. 

 On the wing the note is a guttural puck puck. 



The Shoveller is a somewhat late breeder ; eggs are seldom found in this 

 country before the middle of May, and in high latitudes not until the 

 middle of June. Daring pairing-time the males may constantly be seen 

 chasing the females, and until the female begins to sit she is generally 

 followed by several males every time she leaves her nest ; but the Shoveller 

 cannot be regarded as a polyandrous bird like the Cuckoo. Each female 

 appears to have a male especially attached to herself, who waits upon her, 

 and does not venture to rise from the water until she takes wing, but is 

 not allowed to interfere in the selection of a site for the nest, or in the 

 important operation of building it, or, after the eggs are hatched, in the 

 care of the young. The nest is generally placed in the open, well con- 

 cealed in long grass or heath, and is not very skilfully made. The depres- 

 sion in which it is placed, if deep, is only slenderly lined with dead grass or 

 sedge ; but if shallow, a considerable amount of material is collected to give 

 the nest the required depth. When the female leaves her eggs after she 

 has begun to sit, she carefully covers them with down. Seven to nine is 

 the usual number of eggs, but occasionally clutches are found as large as 

 ten to fourteen. Only one brood is reared in the year ; but if the first nest 

 be robbed before incubation has proceeded very far, a second nest is made, 

 but seldom more than five or six eggs are laid in it. The eggs are pale 

 buffish white, almost the same colour as those of the Garganey, but with 

 the faintest possible trace of olive. They vary in length from 2'2 to 1'8 

 inch, and in breadth from TG to 1'4 inch. The down, like that of nearly 

 all Ducks, has pale centres ; but, unlike that of the Long-tailed Duck and 

 Mallard, it has very conspicuous white tips, quite as conspicuous as in the 

 down of the Wigeon, more so than in that of the Pintail, but not so much 

 so as in that of the Garganey. The general colour of the down is an 

 almost neutral dark grey, like that of the Teal, Garganey, and Mallard, 

 not nearly so brown as that of the Pintail or Long-tailed Duck. The 



