SHOVELLER DUCK. 295 



the Pin-tail. Its flight resembles that of the Blue-winged Teal; and in ten- 

 derness as well as in flavour, it rivals, as an article of food, that beautiful 

 bird. No sportsman who is a judge will ever pass a Shoveller to shoot a 

 Canvass-back. It is rarely however found on salt water, and that only when 

 compelled to resort thither. 



In the beginning of May, when I was in Texas, I found Shovellers breed- 

 ing in considerable numbers. The males had already left the females, and 

 were seen on the sand-bars of the Bay of Galveston, up to the river St. Ja- 

 cinto, but none of my party discovered the nest. During the autumn, they 

 are to be seen on the waters adjoining the Ohio, and generally in ponds in 

 company with the Bald-pate or American Widgeon, when they become very 

 fat, and afford delicious eating. At this time I have been often much pleased 

 when, on perceiving a flock of eight or nine of these Ducks, probably mem- 

 bers of a single family, and cautiously approaching them, while they were 

 busily engaged in searching for food with their heads and necks immersed, 

 I have obtained several of them at the first shot, and as the survivors flew 

 off have succeeded in procuring one or two more. On such occasions, they 

 rise almost perpendicularly to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and then 

 fly off in a direct course, in the manner of Mallards. 



Shoveller, Anas clypeata, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 45. 



Anas clypeata, Bonap. Syn., p. 382. 



Anas clypeata, Shoveller, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 439. 



Shoveller, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 383. 



Shoveller Duck, Anas clypeata, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 241. 



Male, 20|-, 31 i Female, 17, 29|. 



Breeds abundantly in Texas, westward to the Columbia and Fur Coun- 

 tries. During winter from the Middle Atlantic Districts to Texas. Common. 



Adult Male. 



Bill longer than the head, higher than broad at the base, depressed and 

 much widened towards the end, where its breadth is doubled. Upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line sloping and very slightly concave, the ridge at the 

 base broad, narrowed over the nostrils; sides nearly erect at the base, gradu- 

 ally more declinate and convex; the tip very broadly rounded, with the 

 unguis oblong, rather small, curved and rounded at the extremity; the mar- 

 gins soft, with very numerous lamellae, which are prolonged beyond the 

 edges and taper to a point, unless at the commencement of the broadest part 

 of the bill. Nasal groove elliptical, and filled by the soft membrane of the 

 bill; nostrils elliptical, pervious, placed near the riclge. Lower mandible 

 slightly curved upwards, with the angle very long and narrow, the unguis 

 obovate. 



