478 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



confinement ; it may, however, be so kept, and will 

 breed: Yarrell mentions a pair having done so 

 in the Zoological Gardens in the summer of 1841. 

 Although occasionally found on the sea and on the 

 shores of tidal rivers, the Shoveller is on the whole 

 an inland rather than a sea bird, frequenting stagnant 

 pools, ditches and small lakes much surrounded by 

 reeds and rushes and shallow water. 



According to Meyer, the food of this bird consists 

 of small worms, aquatic insects, fish and frog spawn, 

 tadpoles, small frogs, fresh-water snails, the tender 

 shoots of aquatic plants, grasses, buds and seeds of 

 rushes and sometimes grain ; shrimps have also been 

 found in its stomach. Meyer adds that the stomach 

 appears always to contain small stones and pebbles : 

 and this agrees with the contents of the stomach of 

 two of these birds mentioned in the ' Zoologist : ' 

 that of the first contained pebbles and some rather 

 large pieces of stem or roots of sea-weed,* and that 

 of the second minute gravel and vegetable matter. f 



The nest is generally placed amongst grasses and 

 weeds where the ground is dry, and is made of 

 grasses and weeds : after the female begins to sit she 

 covers the eggs with down from her own body. 



The beak of the Shoveller is very peculiar, being 

 very broad towards the tip, much more so than in any 



* * Zoologist ' for 1807 (Second Series, p. 742). 

 | Id., 1864, p. 9120. 



