160 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
SHOVELLER. 
SpaTULA cLYPEATA, Linn. 
Pl. XXIV., fig. 1. 
Geogr. distr.—Throughout Europe to Africa, Asia, and possibly 
Australia, and in America from Alaska to Costa Rica; common in 
Great Britain during the winter, a few pairs remaining to breed. 
Food.—Worms, Mollusca, fish, Crustacea, insects, Alge, grass. 
Nest.—A mere hole scratched in the soil, lined with a little grass 
and a quantity of down from the parent birds. 
Posttion of nest.—Close to water, especially fresh ponds and lakes, 
amongst the high grass, or under the shelter of a low bush. 
Number of eggs.—9-12; occasionally 14. 
Time of mdification—V-VII; May. 
Mr. Booth (‘ Rough Notes,’ part IX.) says that “‘ the rush- 
grown lochs in the east of Ross-shire are particularly 
attractive to this species, the character of the pools much 
resembling that of the Norfolk broads, where these birds 
are also resident. Further south than the swamps and 
flats of the eastern counties, I have not detected their 
breeding haunts, though Shovellers were annually seen 
during the winters I shot in Pevensey Level and Romney 
Marsh some twenty or five-and-twenty years ago. 
“‘Shovellers seldom gather in large flocks ; from a dozen 
up to twice that number may, however, occasionally be 
seen on the Norfolk broads.”’ 
Hewitson says that Mr. Hancock obtained two nests and 
eggs of this species upon Prestwick Carr, a piece of waste 
boggy ground near Newcastle, and that Mr. Salmon took it 
in Norfolk on the 10th of May; also (on the authority of 
the Messrs. Paget) that several nests, containing altogether 
fifty-six eggs, were found durmg one summer in Winterton 
Marshes in that county. 
Though not abundant as a breeding species, at any rate 
where the district is not preserved, the Shoveller has been 
known to breed in Dorset, Kent, Norfolk, Hertford, Cam- 
bridge, Huntingdon, Yorkshire, Hast Lothian, Dumbarton, 
and Elgin, in Queen’s County, Dublin, Donegal, and Antrim. 
