SHOVELLER 21 



Flight. The flight is very much like that of related ducks, being rapid and nearly 

 noiseless, resembling the flight of Teal in its erratic and dodging character. 

 Shovellers are apt to skim about low over the marshes and give one very sudden sur- 

 prises as they dart in unexpectedly over the decoys, presenting difficult and shifting 

 targets. The actual speed of the flight has not been measured, but is probably nearly 

 the same as that of Teal. They do not rise so easily nor so perpendicularly as does 

 the Mallard, and the effort they make causes a rattling or whistling noise, which has 

 given them various nicknames (Rattle-wing in English, Schell- or Schallente in 

 German) . 



Shovellers ordinarily travel in very small groups numbering from three or four to 

 six or eight. Really large flocks of fifty to one hundred are quite exceptional and are 

 probably seen only during active migration. Ducks of this and other species are 

 often killed against lighthouses, and there is a record of a pair of Shovellers killed by 

 flying against a stone-wall in Cheshire, England (Coward and Oldham, 1900). 



Association with other Species. Though not at all a gregarious duck, its inquisi- 

 tive and somewhat sociable nature frequently brings it into the company of other 

 species, particularly the Blue-wing in America and the Garganey in the Old World. 

 It is also occasionally seen among the flocks of other surface-feeding ducks. On our 

 western prairies, where mixed clutches are exceptionally common, Shoveller's eggs 

 have been found in the nests of the American Widgeon. Four eggs of the Lesser 

 Scaup have been found in the nest of a Shoveller which contained ten of its own eggs 

 (Job, 1902). 



Voice. The Shoveller is one of the most silent of ducks. In the winter one may see 

 hundreds without ever hearing a sound from either sex. Unlike most shoal-water 

 ducks, the male does not have a whistling note. His call, which is purely a courtship 

 note, is low, abrupt, somewhat husky and may be expressed by the syllables shawp- 

 shaup (Harper, MS.). This sound, which is only a modified quacking note, has also 

 been transliterated as cruk-cruk (J. I. S. Whitaker, 1905), quuck-quuck (Finn, 1915), 

 woak-woak (Naumann, 1896-1905), chu-uck-chu-uck (Wetmore, 1920). The female 

 has a hoarse but not very loud quacking note. 



The trachea of the male is slightly larger toward the lower end and supports a 

 very moderate-sized, left-sided bulla ossea, resembling that of the Teal more than 

 that of the Mallard. John Ray described it as long ago as 1678. 



Food. Analysis of stomach contents presents many difficulties because there is a 

 large amount of bottom ooze consisting of more or less decayed vegetable debris, 

 often containing large numbers of plants and animals such as diatoms and ostracods. 

 These small organisms supply most of the nutriment which is derived from the so- 



