XCIV. 

 ANAS CLYPEATA. (Linn.) 



Shoveler. 



Through the unceasing ardour of my friend, Mr. John 

 Hancock, I am enabled to give a drawing of the egg of the 

 Shoveler : he had for some time suspected that it is a 

 summer resident with us, and remained to breed in the 

 neighbourhood of Newcastle ; he therefore spared no pains to 

 ascertain the fact, and had the satisfaction during the past 

 summer, of receiving a nest and eggs from Prestwick Carr, a 

 considerable extent of waste ground, covered with heath and 

 furze — boggy, and intersected with drains — and having a 

 piece of water near its centre. From hence, towards the end 

 of May, a nest was brought to him, containing nine eggs ; it 

 was composed of grass, mixed with the down of the bird, and 

 was placed in the middle of a whin bush, by which it was 

 sheltered. Two or three weeks after this, a second nest was 

 found at a short distance from the spot from which the other 

 had been taken ; it was constructed of the same materials, 

 and similarly situated, and contained ten eggs : these were 

 quite fresh, which led us to suppose that they belonged to the 

 same bird which had been previously robbed. I have likewise 

 received the egg of the Shoveler from Norfolk, from Mr. Sal- 

 mon, found on the 10th of JNIay, of the same year ; the nest 

 was amongst a quantity of green rushes, but without that 

 profusion of feathers so generally obseiTed in the nests of the 

 Duck tribe ; there being barely a sufficient quantity of dry 

 grass, to keep the eggs fi'ora the sand: it contained eight eggs, 

 which were within a few days of being ready to hatch — the 

 nest was much exposed. We may therefore safely conclude, 

 that the usual number of eggs, laid by the Shoveler, is eight 

 or nine, and that ten is the greatest number; as those ob- 



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