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FLAMINGOES, DUCKS, AND SCREAMERS. 



dusky, and the beak brown, with its lower mandible orange. In length, the male 

 reaches about 20 inches. The genus is represented by a second species (S. platalea) 

 in South America, by a third (S. capensis) in Africa, and by two others in 

 Australia. Nesting in large numbers near or within the Arctic Circle, and more 

 sparingly in lower latitudes, the common shoveller commences to arrive in the 

 British Isles during September, where it sojourns till the following April or May. 

 In the New World it breeds from Alaska to Texas, and winters as far south as 

 Guatemala ; while it spreads in numbers over the plains of India during the cold 

 season. Writing of its habits in India, Mr. Hume remarks that the shoveller is very 



COMMON SHOVELLER-DUCK. 



tame, and in some districts may be met with " on every trumpery little village pond, 

 half surrounded by huts, the resort of the washermen, and of the entire population 

 for the purposes of ablution, and of the village herds, driven thither twice a day 

 for water. Filthy is quite an inadequate expression for many of these reeking 

 sinks of pollution, but foul or fair the shoveller is equally at home in them, and 

 may be seen at all hours feeding along the edge, now just in and now just out of 

 the water, making no epicurean selection, but feeding on pretty well every organic 

 substance that comes to hand, nice or nasty." In Britain, on the other hand, it 

 is a shy and wary bird, frequenting lakes, ponds, and sluggish rivers. The nest, 

 usually situated on dry ground beneath a tussock of grass, is made of dry grass ; 

 the eggs, which are covered up with down plucked by the female from her own 

 breast, varying in number from eight to fourteen, and being greenish buff in colour. 



