SPATULA CLYPEATA. 199 



In Kashmir, however, a good number pass the whole of the winter, and 

 Adam says that it is found throughout the whole winter there. 



Although common over the major part of the country it visits, it does 

 not seem anywhere to be found in very large numl^ers, and may often he 

 seen in pairs or even singly. I do not rememljer ever seeing a flock which 

 numbered over forty, and should imagine such a flock to be rare 

 anywhere. 



As regards its haunts, these are everywhere and anywhere ; but it does 

 not care for open, deep water, and prefers small creeks, ponds, jheels, and 

 tanks which are well covered with vegetation, and also stretches of shallow 

 water with plentiful cover and a muddy bottom. At the same time, I Jiave 

 shot them in the very centre of large open bheels, and once on a small 

 hill-stream. 



Hume says : — '• To the shores they stick, into the open water they never 

 seem to straggle by choice ; and if you watch them, they are for the most 

 part either dozing on the Ijrink, or paddling slowly in the shallows, 

 with their entire liills and more or less of their heads under water, their 

 heads working from side to side all the while like a Flamingo's or 

 Spoonbill's." 



I have, however, seen the Shoveller in open water, but this only rarely, 

 and only during the heat of the day, when the birds wish to sleep. 



As noted above l^y Hume, they feed with liills and heads under water, 

 running the former through the shallows in the mud, and so collecting the 

 numerous small forms of animal life which there abound, and which, when 

 the bill is lifted, are retained whilst the water filters out. The}' are 

 onniivorous, and will eat almost anything, luit, at the same time, animal 

 food undoubtedly forms the major portion of their diet. 



Except for the very handsome appearance of the full-plumaged drake, 

 the Shoveller is worth little from any point of vieAv. As an edibl(% they 

 are one of the worst of the duck tribe — coarse, oily, and fishy in taste, and 

 ranking equal to the White-eye, and inferior to the Whistling-Teal. 



As regards their feeding and its quality, Hume writes : — " Doubtless, in 

 more savoury localities, such as the more aristocratic ducks frequent, insects 

 and their larvse, worms, small frogs, shells, tiny fish, antl all kinds of reeds 

 and shoots of water grasses, rushes, and the like constitute their food ; but 

 where they take up their abode on one of the village ponds, and the pond 

 is a real dirty one, I can assert, from the examination of many recently 

 killed birds, that it is impossible to say what these birds will not eat. 



"All ducks are more or less omnivorous, l)ut no othci- duck will, as a 



