3l6 BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE SHOYEEER. 



BLUE-WING SHOVELER, KERTLUTOCK, OR BROAD-BILL. 



(Anas Clypeata, Einn. Canard sou diet ^ Temm. 



THE Shoveler is less than the Wild Duck, com- 

 monly weighing about twenty-two ounces, and 

 measuring twenty-one inches in length. The bill 

 is black, three inches long, very broad or spread 

 out, and rounded like a spoon at the end, with 

 the nail hooked inward and small : the insides of 

 the mandibles are remarkably well furnished with 

 thin pectinated rows, which fit into each other like 

 a weaver's brake, and through which no dirt can 

 pass, while the bird is separating or sifting the 

 small worms and insects from amongst the mud, by 

 the edges of the water, where it is continually 

 searching for them: the irides are of a fine pure 

 yellow; the head and upper half of the neck of a 

 dark glossy changeable green: the lower part of 

 the neck, the breast, and scapulars, white; the 



