24 SPATULA CLYPEATA 



jectionable. About 300 seeds of a beach grass (Monanthochloc littoralis) were found 

 in one stomach. The algae determined were musk-grasses (Chara) but filamentous 

 alga? not identified are just as important a proportion of the food. Diatoms were 

 detected in two stomachs. Seeds of waterlilies, largely those of water-shield (Bra- 

 senia) and stolons of the banana waterlily (Castalia mexicana) represent this family 

 in the Shoveller's diet; duckweeds (Lemnacece) are eaten entire, and seeds again of 

 smartweeds are the portion sought. The only other item of plant food worthy of 

 special note is the velvet duckweed (Azolla caroliniana), a fern ally growing on the 

 water surface of southern swamps, specimens of which composed nearly half of the 

 contents of one stomach; it seems to be rarely eaten by birds. 



"Other observers have added to the Shoveller's diet as follows: Audubon (Orn. 

 Biogr. 4, 1838, p. 241) reports leeches as part of the food of the Shoveller; Aughey 

 (Rep. U.S. Ent. Comm. 1877, app. 2, p. 59) found Rocky Mountain locusts (Calop- 

 tenus spretus) in a stomach he examined; Baker (Proc. Ac. Sci. Phila., 1889, p. 267) 

 reports the mollusk (Rissonia pulchra); Fisher (N. A. Fauna 7, 1893, p. 17) notes 

 that: 'At . . . Owens Lake, Calif., Mr. Nelson found it feeding extensively on the 

 larvae and pupae of a small fly (Ephydra Mas) which abounds in the lake,' Lantz 

 and Piper (Biol. Survey Field Notes) observed it feeding greedily on maggots as they 

 floated downstream from a dead cow; and Samuels (New England Birds, p. 497) 

 adds tadpoles to its bill of fare." It has been commented upon as an enemy of 

 amphipods (H. H. T. Jackson, 1912). 



Courtship and Nesting. Old male Shovellers arrive on the breeding grounds in 

 all the perfection of the spring plumage, but the males of the previous year have the 

 plumage by no means fully developed. Naturalists are divided on the question as to 

 whether or not these young males breed the first season. It will probably be found 

 that those hatched early in the previous season reach sexual maturity by the follow- 

 ing spring. Certainly no shoal-water duck is more irregular than the Shoveller in 

 assuming the full dress. Sometimes old and otherwise perfect male specimens will 

 have a brown feather here and there to mar the white of the breast. Absolutely 

 perfect specimens are more rare than in any other species. But it must not be for- 

 gotten that lack of full plumage is not necessarily an indication of sexual imma- 

 turity either in this or other species. 



In the Mississippi Valley (Portage des Sioux, Missouri) U. S. Biological Survey 

 workers found Shovellers beginning to pair off as early as February 21 and they 

 were mostly mated by March 24, rather earlier than most other ducks. 



The display is simple and unpretentious, and almost the same as among the Blue- 

 winged Teals. It has been well described by many writers, and consists merely in the 

 male's moving the head directly up and down, while the bill is held in a horizontal 

 position. At the same time the characteristic chuckling note is uttered. The female 



