198 INDIAN DUCKS. 



Male in first plumage resembles the female, but the \vinc;.s are brighter 

 coloured : bill pale reddish-brown ; legs and feet flesh-coloured. 



Males in their post-nuptial plumage have the white of the breast w ith a few 

 dark cresciiiitic band-;, the lower belly w ith dark bars, and the rich black of the 

 under tail-coverts mottled with chestnut and white. 



" Young in down resemble those of the Wigeon in having the upper parts 

 almost uniform, with indistinct pale spots, but they possess the dark brown stripe 

 through the eye as in the young Mallard. The bill is not widened at the tip, 

 but it grows very rapidly." {Salvadori.) 



The Shovellor is to be met witli at different times throughout the 

 Northern Hemispliere in all four (Jontinents. Found over ))racticallv the 

 whole o£ Euroj)e and Asia at various seasons, it extends in winter as far 

 south as Somaliland in Afi-ica, and in America to the 18th degree latitude 

 north in the ^Vest Indies, and even further soutli in Guatemala. 



The references made to its occurrence in Australia and South America 

 apply to allied species and not to the Common (Shoveller. 



In India proper the Shoveller is a winter visitant to all )»arts. from the 

 extreme north to the extreme soutli : hut, tliouLfli ir surely must occur there 

 at times, it has not yet been recorded from Pegu and Tenasserim. 



In (Jeylon it is also fairly common. Legge writes : — " This remarkable 

 and almost cosmopolitan Duck is a not unfrequent winter visitor to 

 Ceylon. T liave not met with it myself, but Mr. (r. Simpson informs me 

 that it comes in largo numbers to Delft and the Palverainkadoo and 

 Mullaittivu lagoons, remaining during the same period as the Teal and 

 Pintail." 



The Shoveller is not one of the earliest ducks to arrive; as a rule it comes 

 into the more northern portions of India in the latter end of October or 

 even early in November, and is later still in the southern jxirts of its ranu-e. 

 In Bengal, I think few are seen until November : in Assam, especiallv in 

 the extreme N.E., I have ^eon them in October. 



It leaves, as well as arrives, later than many ducks, and mav often 

 lie met with in Cachar during April; and Hume says that some remain 

 in the Peshawar Valley until .May. and that in Kashmir thev remain 

 until i|uite the end of that month. Lieut. White also obtained one in 

 the Kurram Valley, in company of three Gadwall. on the 22nd of the 

 same month. 



In the extreme north of its range and in the Himalavas it is onlv seen 

 whilst on migration, during the montlis of late September and October 

 and early November, and again in March and April, as the birds oo north. 



