THE SHOVELLER. 327 



which the young are almost immediately led, and they soon 

 begin to pick up the smaller marine animals. Marine in- 

 sects, small Crustacea, and the spawn and young fry of fishes, 

 appear to be the principal food of these birds. They have 

 in consequence a rank and fishy taste. They are generally 

 found in pairs ; and though they are dispersed over a very 

 considerable range of latitude, they do not appear to flock or 

 migrate, farther than spreading themselves in the summer, 

 and leaving those places where the shallows freeze in the 

 winter. 



They are quiet birds, and not difficult to tame ; but they 

 do not breed readily in confinement. 



THE BUDDY SHELDEAKE (Tddoma TUtlla). 



This species is understood to inhabit more northerly places 

 on the continent than the common sheldrake, and appears in 

 Britain only as a straggler. It has the same elegant form 

 of the body as the other, and the wings equally long and 

 pointed ; but its bill and head are smaller in proportion to 

 its body. The front and cheeks are white, extending back- 

 ward over the eyes ; the rest of the head and the upper part 

 of the neck rusty brown ; the body pale reddish chestnut ; 

 the coverts white ; the primaries, lower part of the back, and 

 tail, black ; and the wing spot green, with bronze-coloured 

 reflections. 



THE SHOVELLER (Spathulea clypeata). 



The shoveller, though it sometimes breeds in the country, 

 and is rather plentiful in Holland and Belgium, is not a very 

 common bird with us. It inhabits more inland than the 

 sheldrake, in the marshes and on the muddy banks of rivers, 

 feeding on worms and other small animals, which it dabbles 

 for, and for the capture of which its bill is well adapted. It 

 is black, about three inches long, and increasing in breadth 



