194 SHOYELER. 



having found in the stomachs of birds examined by him, vegetable matters of various 

 kinds, seeds, sand, gravel, fragments of a Littorina; and in one a number of the shells 

 of Bissoa ulvce, and one full-grown Littorina neritoides, together with fragments of stone, 

 as there were in all the others examined by him. 



The nest is formed of dry grass; and is placed in the middle of some large tuft of 

 rushes or coarse grass, growing on a dry spot in some secluded or inaccessible marsh. 



The eggs, which are ten or twelve in number, are of a rusty yellow white, slightly 

 tinged with greenish, and measure two inches and a sixth in length, by one inch and a 

 half in breadth. It is said that the female after beginning to sit, covers the eggs with 

 down pulled from her own body. When hatched, Mr. Yarrell states that the bills of the 

 ducklings are narrow, and exhibit none of the peculiarity for which the old birds are 

 noted. Hybrids between the Shoveler and the G-adwall have been obtained. 



In the adult male, "the bill is brownish black, three inches in length, greatly widened 

 near the extremity, closely pectinated on the sides, and furnished with a nail on the 

 tip of each mandible; irides, bright orange; tongue, large and fleshy; the inside of the 

 upper, and outside of the lower mandible, are grooved, so as to receive distinctly the 

 long separated reed-like teeth; there is also a gibbosity in the two mandibles, which do 

 not meet at the sides; and this vacuity is occupied by the sifters just mentioned; head 

 and upper half of the neck, glossy changeable green; rest of the neck and breast, white, 

 passing round and nearly meeting above; whole belly, dark reddish chestnut; flanks, 

 brownish yelloAV, pencilled transversely with black, between which and the vent, which is 

 black, is a band of white; back, blackish brown, exterior edges of the scapulars, white; 

 lesser wing coverts, and some of the tertials, a fine light sky-blue; beauty spot on the 

 wing, a changeable resplendent bronze green, bordered above by a band of white, and 

 below with another of velvety black ; rest of the wing, dusky, some of the tertials streaked 

 down their middles with white; tail dusky, pointed, broadly edged with white; legs and 

 feet, reddish orange; hind toe not finned." 



"The female has the crown of a dusky brown; rest of the head and neck, yellowish 

 white, thickly spotted with dark brown; these spots on the breast become larger and 

 crescent-shaped; back and scapulars, dark brown, edged and centred with yellow ochre; 

 belly slightly rufous, mixed with white; wing nearly as in the male." — Wilson. 



Young males have spots of brown on the breast, and white feathers here and there 

 over the head and back. 



"Adult males in summer change the green colour of the head and neck to brown, spotted 

 with very dark brown; back and scapulars, dusky; breast and belly, ferruginous, spotted 

 with black; legs, orange." — Yarrell. 



The weight is about one pound two ounces. 



In length it measures one foot eight inches. 



