DUCK. 311 



year the wing is like the rest of the body : both sexes vary much in 

 colour, before they acquire the adult plumage; and the male differs 

 from the other sex inwardly, having, just above the divarication of 

 the windpipe, where it passes into the lungs, an enlargement or 

 labyrinth, which consists of a roundish bony arch, but very small 

 in proportion to the bird, for the shape of which see Lin. Transact. 



This species is now and then met with in England, but not in 

 great numbers. Will ugh by mentions one found at Crowland, in 

 Lincolnshire, and we have received the male more than once from 

 the London markets. In April 1790, two males and three females 

 settled on a pond near Sandwich, in Kent; one of each was shot, 

 and forwarded to me by Mr. Boys, who informed me that two were 

 killed near the same place a few years before; and the above were 

 all he ever met with : and we are informed by Dr. Lamb, that four 

 were seen together on the River Kennet, and three of them shot the 

 beginning of September, 1814. We believe it does not often breed 

 in this kingdom ;* but is said to come into France in February, and 

 some of them to stay through the summer. It lays ten or twelve 

 rufous eggs, placed on a bed of rushes, or dried grass, in the same 

 places as the Summer Teal, and departs in September, at least the 

 greater part, for it is rare to see one in the winter. The chief food 

 is insects, for which it is continually muddling in the water with its 

 bill ; said also to be dextrous in catching flies, which pass in its way 

 over the water; shrimps also have been found in its stomach. 



This bird is likewise found in most parts of Germany, throughout 

 the Russian dominions, and quite to Kamtschatka; extends south- 

 ward as far as Spain, whence, as well as from Barbary, it finds its 

 way to the markets at Gibraltar, in great abundance, along with 

 Mallards, and others of the Duck Genus; yet, although with us 



* Mr. Youell, of Yarmouth, in Norfolk, procured from the marsh at Winterton, 

 upwards of thirty eggs of the Shoveler Duck, which were put under some domestic Fowls, 

 and most of them hatched. One of them, a male, lived ten months, and had then obtained, 

 in a considerable degree, the adult plumage of the Shoveler.— See Lin. Trans, xiii. p. 616. 



