52 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



they see for certain that they are observed, different tactics are 

 made use of. The parent bird generally attempts the imitation 

 of a wounded bird, while the young ones dive and scatter in all 

 directions. 



My notes on the Shoveler are all dated between the beginning 

 of April and the end of June. As far as my own observations 

 go, the bird only comes into the district for the purpose of 

 nesting. I should not care to say that the species may not be 

 present amongst the big mobs of ducks on the estuaries in the 

 winter ; but I have never seen them at that time along the fleets. 

 They are a duck easy at once to identify upon the wing by the 

 difference in the proportions, as compared to other ducks, of the 

 comparative size of the head and body. The drake Shoveler in 

 the spring time may be further distinguished from the Mallard 

 by the bright chestnut band across its lower breast showing up 

 plainly against the pure white, and also by its deeper, more 

 abbreviated, and rather subdued note, which might be syllabled 

 perhaps as "t-o-o-k." In the first two weeks of April these 

 birds become conspicuous in the marshes, almost invariably in 

 pairs, standing on the banks of the dykes, or running in the 

 meadows with alert movements. When disturbed they circle 

 round with a very swift flight, and it may then be noticed that 

 they have more sharply pointed wings than the Mallard, and 

 swifter and less lumbering movements. Sometimes the first 

 pair disturbed will be joined by another, and the quartette will 

 circle many times round, coming down often as though to settle, 

 then rising again and doing another turn before finally alighting. 

 By the middle of April they have begun nesting operations, and 

 are not then nearly so demonstrative or apparent. They evi- 

 dently begin laying soon after the first week in April, for on the 

 19th of that month I have found a nest containing eight eggs, 

 which would mean that laying had commenced at least eight 

 days sooner. Close sitting possibly does not always follow 

 directly the clutch is completed, because in the case of this 

 nest, although eight eggs were the complete clutch, yet the 

 brood was not hatched out on May 13th — i. e. twenty-five days 

 later — the bird being at that date still sitting on the nest. On 

 May 18th the brood had gone off. Summarising my notes on 

 the nests of this duck, gathered from the examination of six 



