396 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



a remarkably silent bird, always apparently too intent on feeding 

 to talk. Its flesh is of very variable quality, depending a good 

 deal on the diet of the bird. 



Nidification. — The Shoveller is a rather late breeder, and 

 even in our islands its eggs are not laid until the middle of May 

 or later, whilst in more northern latitudes they are not laid before 

 June or even early in July. The breeding grounds of the 

 Shoveller are situated amongst lakes and swamps where plenty 

 of aquatic vegetation grows on the banks, and where shallow- 

 water or sluggish streams choked with weed furnish plenty of 

 feeding places. The nest is generally made on a bit of dry 

 ground amongst the tall grass and sedge or heath, and is simply 

 a hollow into which a little dry grass, sedge, and a few dead leaves 

 are collected, and warmly lined with down and feathers plucked 

 from the female. The eggs are from seven to fourteen in number, 

 nine or ten being an average clutch. They are pale buffish white 

 with a faint tinge of olive-green, fine in texture, and with some 

 little gloss. They measure on an average 2'o inches in length by 

 I '5 inch in breadth. Down tufts moderate in size, neutral dark 

 gray with pale centres and very conspicuous white tips. Incu- 

 bation, almost invariably performed by the female, lasts, according 

 to Naumann, twenty-one to twenty-three days, but Tiedemann 

 gives twenty-eight days as the period. The male Shoveller has 

 been found sitting on the eggs in at least one well-authenticated 

 instance. The young are usually able to fly a month after they 

 are hatched, but until then they are assiduously tended by the 

 female. Only one brood is reared in the year, but, as is often 

 the case, if the first eggs are taken others are laid. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Anas, with the bill twice as wide 

 at the tip as it is at the base. Length, 20 inches. 



