SHOVELLER 19 



Information as to the autumn migration in Asia is too meager to allow of generalization. Shovel- 

 lers leave the Wiljui late in August (Maak, 1859), but they have been seen near Gichiga as late as the 

 end of September (J. A. Allen, 1905) and a specimen was taken on Bering Island as late as October 

 11 (Hartert, 1920). In Kashmir some arrive as early as September (Scully, 1881), but they do not 

 reach India proper until after October 22, while most of them appear in the middle of November 

 (Hume and Marshall, 1879). 



Returns of Banded Shovellers: Of forty-eight banded by A. Wetmore at Salt Lake, Utah, nine 

 returns were received. These were all from localities not far away except one, which was taken a 

 year later at Vallejo, California (U.S. Biological Survey). 



One marked on the Swedish Isle of Oland on the 28th of May, 1912, was shot the 20th of August of 

 the same year near Peronne, Department of Somme, France, distance about 1200 kilometers (Thiene- 

 mann, 1914). This shows how early the migration begins. 



One ringed in Warwickshire, England, in mid-winter, was taken over five years later in Jutland, 

 Denmark. Another, apparently a local breeding British specimen, was taken in mid-winter in Hol- 

 land (British Birds, vol. 14, p. 130, 1920). 



GENERAL HABITS 



The Common Shoveller, which has even a wider distribution than the Mallard, is, 

 on account of its ungainly appearance, one of the most familiar of all ducks. The 

 huge bill, from which it derives its name, is armed with rows of greatly enlarged 

 bristles (lamellae) which serve the purpose of a sieve. An interesting point in con- 

 nection with this specialized bill is the fact that at hatching time the duckling has a 

 perfectly normal-looking mandible, narrow, somewhat high at the base, and no 

 longer than the bill of the young Mallard. It seems quite likely, therefore, if we apply 

 the recapitulation theory of the embryologists, that the huge bill has been rather 

 recently acquired. Generally considered the Shoveller has something in common with 

 the Blue-winged Teals and the Mallard, but the Shoveller group is characterized not 

 only by the bill, but by the exceptional length of the intestine, which is from 6.5 to 10 

 feet long, nearly twice as long as that of most other surface-feeding ducks. Shufeldt 

 (1888) made a careful study of the skeleton and showed that with the exception of the 

 bill it is not very different from that of many other ducks and resembles the Teal's. 



Aside from its rather specialized diet, there is nothing very peculiar about the 

 habits of the Shoveller. It prefers shallow, muddy, stagnant pools and marshes, 

 where the bottom ooze contains an abundance of minute vegetable and animal life, 

 such as ostracods, copepods, diatoms, and algae. 



Its preference for filthy village pools in India called forth caustic and uncompli- 

 mentary remarks from Hume (Hume and Marshall, 1879). "Filthy," he says," is 

 quite an inadequate epithet for many of these reeking sinks of pollution, but foul or 

 fair, the Shoveller is equally at home in them, and may be seen at all hours, feeding 

 along the very edge, now just in and now just out of the water, making not epicurean 

 selection, but feeding on pretty well every organic substance that comes to hand, 

 nice or nasty. . . . All ducks are more or less omnivorous, but no other duck will, as 



