84 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



MUSEUM SPECIMEN. 



One male taken at Kamloops, British Columbia, in June, 1889, 

 by Mr. W. Spreadborough. 



LI. SPATULA BoiE. 1822. 

 4*2. Shoveller. Spoon-bill. 



Spatula clypeata ('Linn.) Boie. 1822. 



This species is a summer migrant in Newfoundland, Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, but we have no 

 record of its breeding, except that Mcllwraith says that Dr. Mac- 

 allum observed one leading its young within half a mile of Dunn- 

 ville, at the mouth of the Grand River, Lake Erie, and Saunders 

 and Morden say it may breed on the St. Clair Flats. 



This is one of the commonest ducks in the prairie region, from 

 Manitoba to the mountains and from Lat. 49° to the Barren 

 Grounds, where it becomes rare, as Macfarlane says only a couple 

 of specimens were collected at Fort Anderson in six years.. 

 Between Lat. 51° and Lat. 54° it is specially abundant, and is 

 found in the autumn in immense numbers in every pond and 

 lakelet. A few pairs were breeding on Vermilion Lakes, at Banff, 

 in May, 1891 ; and at Lake Ste. Anne, Alberta, June, 1898. 



It is a rare species in Alaska, though Nelson reports it breed- 

 ing as far north as Kotzebue Sound. Fannin says it is an 

 abundant summer resident on the mainland of British Columbia, 

 east of the Coast Range, and Brooks says it is a common resident 

 in the Lower Fraser valley about Sumas Lake. 



Breeding Notes. — Common near Reaburn, Manitoba, and also 

 at Buffalo Lake, Alberta, where both eggs and birds were taken. 

 {Dipfie.) One of the commonest ducks of northwest Canada. 

 Breeding abundantly throughout Manitoba and Assiniboia, but 

 rarer in Alberta. It lays from ten to twelve eggs, making a nest 

 in the grass not far from water. (Raine.) 



This species breeds with other water-fowl on all the marshes 

 from Kotzebue Sound to the mouth of the Kuskoquim. The eggs 

 are deposited the last of May and first of June in a dry spot near 

 some pond or stream, and the nest is usually lined with grass and 

 feathers, the latter from the parent's breast. {Nelson.) 



