182 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
and dealt with, and the greater the consequent 
food-supply for the duck. 
It is a really handsome bird in colour, the 
peculiar mass of light lilac blue-grey feathers of . 
the wing contrasting vividly with the chestnut of 
the sides. Indeed, I do not know any duck that 
is superior to it in its vividly contrasting colora- 
tion. Although it is in form clumsy-looking, it is 
anything but clumsy or slow in getting up and on 
the wing, and I own to having been beaten often 
at pools similar to those described in reference to 
the Pintail, by the quickness and pace of its flight. 
The last visit I paid to the Cairo Zoological Gardens 
in March 1909, the ornamental waters there were 
crowded with duck, nearly all Shovellers. All had 
come in of their own accord, flew freely, and would, 
so Mr. Nicoll informed me, shortly all be up and 
away till another season came round. And in the 
most interesting report of the Wild Birds of the 
Giza Gardens just published, figures are given. 
“‘ A few Shovellers arrive, in some years, as early 
as August, and they become more and more 
numerous during the autumn and winter. Some 
leave here in March, but the majority do so in 
April.” “Up to 1902 twenty was the largest 
number of Shovellers seen, at one time, on our lake. 
