SHOVELLER DUCK. Spatula cl 



black, and the breast and abdomen are chestnut-brown. The female is brown of various 

 tones above, and pale brown below. The total length of the bird is about twenty inches. 

 Before taking leave of the Anatinse, or true Ducks, we must cast a casual glance at the 

 GAD WALL ( Chaulelasmus strepera), a noisy and soberly plumaged species, which by right 

 belongs to North America, but sometimes comes over and visits the British Islands. The 

 well-known MUSCOVEY or MUSK DUCK also belongs to this sub-family. 



WE now arrive at another sub-family of Ducks, termed Fuligulinse, of which we have 

 many representatives in England. 



The POCHARD DUN-BIRD or EEDHEADED POKER is one of our winter visitors, appear- 

 ing, as is usual with such birds, in October and departing in the spring. It is a wary and 

 timid bird, and being an excellent diver is often able to escape from the decoys by 

 submerging itself at the first alarm, and making its way under water to the mouth of the 

 tunnel. It is, however, possessed of little presence of mind, and according to Montagu 

 can be taken plentifiilly by a very rude kind of process. 



" Poles were erected at the avenues to the decoys, and after a great number of these 

 birds had collected for some time on the pond to which the wild fowl resort only by day, 

 and go to the neighbouring fens to feed by night, a net was at a given time erected by 

 pulleys to these poles, beneath which a deep pit had previously been dug ; and as these 

 birds, like the woodcocks, go to feed just as it is dark, and are said to always rise against 

 the wind, a whole flock was sometimes taken in this manner. For if once they strike 

 against the net they never attempt to return, but flutter down the net until they are 

 received into the pit, whence they cannot rise, and thus we are told twenty dozen have 

 been taken at one catch." % 



The voice of the Pochard is a kind of harsh croaking sound when the bird is alarmed, 

 but at other times is a low whistle. The bird swims rather deep in the water, and though 

 it dives well, is a bad and awkward walker. 



The nest of the Pochard is placed upon the edges of lakes and ponds, and is protected 

 by the sedges, rushes, or similar coarse vegetation. The eggs are ten or twelve in number, 

 and their colour is buffy white. 



In the adult male the head and upper part of the neck are chestnut-rea, and the lower 

 part of the neck deep velvet-black. The back is grey profusely sprinkled with a darker 

 tint. The secondaries are tipped with white, the remaining quill-feathers are dark grey, 

 some of them being tipped with brown. The tail is greyish brown. The breast and 



