132 GAME BIBDS OF CALIFOMNIA 



Shovellers "are usually found in pairs or small flocks, sitting on 

 banks or puddling in shallow water close to shore, skimming flies 

 and larvae from the surface with their spoon-like bills, or with head 

 and neck under water, sifting seeds, moUusks and crustaceans from 

 the muddy bottom" (V. Bailey in Bailey, 1902, p. 54). 



The male Shoveller, with its bright green head, pure white breast, 

 deep cinnamon belly and light blue patches on the wings, is, to say 

 the least, a strikingly marked bird. The additional character of a 

 broad, spoon-shaped bill (see figs. 17 and 18), makes it one of the 

 easiest of the ducks to recognize. The female and young, although 

 roughly similar in coloration to the Blue-winged and Cinnamon teals, 

 especially in the possession of blue patches on the wing, are easily 

 separated from the teals by larger size, and still better, by the shape 

 of the bill. On the wing the comparatively huge bill, thick head and 

 short neck, make good field marks. The flight of the Shoveller is 

 something like that of the teal but is less direct, more of a hesitating, 

 hovering sort. 



In California the nesting season of the Shoveller commences in 

 April. Emerson (1901, p. 116) found two nests near Hayward, 

 Alameda County, one on April 25, 1901, with fourteen eggs, and 

 another (number of eggs not stated) on March 28, 1886. On Wheeler 

 Island, Solano County, Fair (MS) found a nest with eleven eggs on 

 May 8, 1914. In the Ingersoll collection there are two sets, of nine 

 and ten eggs, respectively, with incubation begun in both cases ; both 

 were taken near Jamison, Fresno County, May 21, 1916. Farther 

 south, at Tulare Lake, Kings County, Goldman (19086, p. 202) found 

 small young between June 18 and 24 (1907), at ChowchiUa, Merced 

 County, two downy young were found June 25, 1900 (Mailliard coll.), 

 and near Gorman Station, Los Angeles County, the species has been 

 reported as breeding during the "last of June" (A. K. Fisher, 1893a, 

 p. 17). 



The nest, constructed of dried grasses and weeds, with an occa- 

 sional lining of down, is usually placed on dry ground, and often at 

 some distance from water. Emerson (loe. eit.) describes the nest 

 found near Hayward, Alameda County, April 25, 1901, as being on 

 the bare ground among salt weed. "It was not over four inches off 

 the ground and . . . was composed of dry stems of the salt-weed, 

 lined with down and a few feathers from the parent bird, and 

 measured fourteen inches across the top with a depth of five inches." 

 Another nest discovered on March 28, 1886, by the same writer and 

 in the same general locality, was placed under a low bush, 150 yards 

 back from the bay shore and was of similar construction to the one 

 just described. 



