240 BIRDS 



yellowish white; back dark olive brown, the feathers 

 Ughter on the edges; under parts yellowish brown in- 

 distinctly barred with dusky; wings much hke male's, 

 only less vivid. Immature birds have plumage inter- 

 mediate between their parents; their shoulders are slaty 

 gray and the wing patch shows httle or no green. 



Range — "Northern Hemisphere; in America more common 

 in the interior; breeds regularly from Minnesota north- 

 ward and locally as far south as Texas; not known to 

 breed in the Atlantic states; winters from southern 

 Illinois and Virginia southward to northern South 

 America." (Chapman.) 



Season — Winter visitor in the South; spring and autumn 

 migrant north of Washington; more abundant in autumn 

 migrations in the East. 

 {See plates, pages, 226-227.) 



However variable the plumage of this duck may be in 

 the sexes and at different seasons, its strangely shaped bill 

 at once identifies it, no other representatives of the spoon- 

 bill genus of ducks having found their way to North 

 American waters. Apparently the shoveler is guided by 

 touch rather than sight, as it pokes about on the muddy 

 shores of ponds or tips up to probe in the shallow waters 

 for the small shellfish, insects, roots of aquatic plants, and 

 small fish it feeds on. It is not a strict vegetarian, how- 

 ever delicate and delicious its flesh may be at the proper 

 season. There are many sportsmen who would not pass a 

 shoveler to shoot a canvasback. 



North of the United States, where these ducks chiefly 

 have their summer home, we hear of the jaunty, parti- 

 colored drake, gayly decked out for the nesting season. 



