28 SPATULA CLYPEATA 



Blue-wing are about equally common, and next to the Gadwall as breeding birds. 

 In the Athabasca delta, somewhat north of its chief breeding grounds, Harper (MS.) 

 considered this duck ninth in abundance of the seventeen species nesting there. 



On the Bear River marshes, Utah, Wetmore (1921) found it the fourth common- 

 est breeding duck, and he estimated at least 250 pairs in that locality. Writing in 

 1903 about Wisconsin, Kumlien and Hollister say that the species had not decreased 

 like the other ducks. 



In the Old World there has been a marked increase in England since 1876 (H. Saun- 

 ders, 1899) and in Scotland since the '80's and '90's (Millais, 1902; Rintoul and 

 Baxter, 1920a); in Ireland the species was practically unknown in William Thomp- 

 son's day (1851) but when Ussher and Warren (1900) wrote it was breeding in half 

 the counties, and was common on the great central plain. From 58 to G5 have been 

 taken in the Kellyville Decoy in one season. English decoy records for the most 

 part do not mention the species for the bulk of the birds leave before the decoy 

 season is on, and return after the season is closed. Between 1833 and 1868 only 285 

 Shovellers were taken in a total of 95,000 ducks at the Ashby Decoy, Lincolnshire. 

 In the Orielton Decoy, Pembroke, between 1905 and 1918, Shovellers numbered 94, 

 and in the Borough Fen Decoy, Lincoln, in the season 1917-18 the extraordinary 

 number of over 200 were taken (J. Whitaker, 1918). 



There is no indication of any marked increase or decrease in continental Europe. 

 At the mouth of the Rhone, Clarke (1898) at the end of September found it really 

 abundant, a thousand being noted at one time. Not till one reaches the eastern 

 Mediterranean is it met with in numbers comparable to those seen on our Gulf 

 Coast. From my own experience I can say that it is one of the most abundant ducks 

 in the Nile basin. In India, where it is undoubtedly very abundant, it does not con- 

 gregate or concentrate in such numbers as on our southern coast. 



Enemies. Same as for other surface-feeding ducks. 



Damage. Its early migration in the autumn may bring it to the rice-fields of Cali- 

 fornia and Arkansas before the crop is harvested, but it is very doubtful whether it 

 ever does so much damage as the Mallard or the Pintail under similar conditions. 

 The U.S. Biological Survey does not believe that it ever damages a crop or destroys 

 animals which are of value to man. It does devour various fish predators such as 

 dragon-fly nymphs, giant water-bugs, water-scorpions, etc., besides crayfish which 

 are destructive to crops and to levees. It is unlikely also that it has much effect on 

 the more valuable duck -food plants for it prefers dirty shallow water with a great 

 density of animal and vegetable life. 



Food Value. I know of no surface-feeding duck about the value of whose flesh 



