228 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



bogs ; we often met with small parties of three or four drakes, 

 and from a swamp at Llechylched put up eight adult birds at 

 once. The numbers of the resident birds are augmented in 

 autumn ; hundreds resort to some of the lakes in September and 

 October. The Shoveler is, like the Teal, more abundant in the 

 west than elsewhere in Anglesea ; the strikingly coloured drakes 

 often consort with drake Mallards, but sometimes are to be seen 

 in little parties composed only of their own kind. We saw three 

 and four Shovelers together in several places ; on one occasion 

 six rose from a bog near Ehos Neigr, and on one of the lakes we 

 saw a party of seven. Now and then we saw a duck and drake 

 together, the eggs or young having probably been destroyed. 

 The Mallard, though the commonest, is the shyest of the Ducks, 

 a trait noticeable alike on the Cheshire meres in winter, and on 

 the Anglesea llyns in the breeding season. When Shovelers and 

 Mallards are together the latter will often take alarm and leave 

 the Shovelers on the water, or if all rise the Mallards will leave 

 the vicinity, while the Shovelers not infrequently return again to 

 the water. When the Shoveler is swimming its characteristic 

 pose, even if its broad shovel-shaped bill cannot be made out, 

 enables one to pick it out from a party of Mallards. The head, 

 carried low, appears to be weighed down by the heavy beak, and 

 its somewhat squat body is, if we may use the term, down in the 

 bows ; a duck or a drake in eclipse may be recognized by this 

 pose. In several places we saw ducks which from their behaviour 

 obviously had young broods. On June 6th we walked through a 

 swamp at Llechylched, where the sluggish Crugyll is bordered 

 by wet rush -grown land ; a narrow embankment raised three or 

 four feet above the shallow water enabled us to see the birds 

 which we might have missed had we been obliged to splash 

 through the swamp itself. Six Shoveler drakes rose together, 

 then a single drake, and later a duck and drake in company. 

 Four ducks rose from the rushes, and squattered along the her- 

 bage and through the shallow water, two close together and two 

 singly. Their actions were similar to those of a duck Mallard 

 when surprised with a brood. The birds simulated disablement, 

 flying with apparent difficulty, dragging their bodies through the 

 water, and striking it with their wings. Unlike a Mallard, they 

 made no sound, and as they went away from us showed little or 



