274 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



snapping at flies, pruning their plumage, and skimming the 

 surface of the water with their spoonbills. Neither have I 

 known them stay in a party later than the end of April, though 

 one or twojpairs nest in the neighbourhood of the Solway, or 

 at least have done so since 1886 to our certain knowledge. 

 On the 8th of May in that year James Smith succeeded in 

 tracing a female Shoveller to her nest after much careful watch- 

 ing. It was found in a tussock of rushes on one of the salt 

 marshes of the Solway, and the cattle had munched the tops of 

 the rushes, so that the position was a bare one. The nest con- 

 tained eight eggs, six of which were hatched out, one of the 

 ducklings breaking through the eggshell in the presence of Mr. 

 W. Duckworth, through whose kindness I received two of the 

 number as well as a specimen of the down, which was further 

 identified by Mr. Seebohm. In 1887, Smith found a Shoveller's 

 nest, probably belonging to the same bird in the old locality, 

 placed in a slight depression of the soil and covered by long 

 grass. He took the eggs, and again hatched them under a 

 'clucker/ but failed, as in 1886, to bring the young birds to 

 maturity. I have not succeeded in finding a nest since ; nor is 

 this surprising, when we consider the large extent of the 

 ground, much of it preserved, within which a pair or two pairs 

 of these birds try to nest with us. In July 1889 I saw a pair 

 of Shovellers, which, from their actions, had evidently a brood 

 of young in the sedge at Monkhill Lough. In 1890 I met with 

 a pair of breeding Shovellers on a flow near the Solway in July, 

 and examined a very young bird shot out of a family party at 

 the beginning of August. The male Shoveller never entirely 

 deserts its mate. Single males are of course to be seen at any 

 time during the summer, but they are either bachelors or have 

 a mate in charge of eggs or young somewhere near. Such birds 

 will often take a flight in company with Mallard, but after a 

 few turns they generally drop out and return to some favourite 

 pool. They are shy birds, much more intolerant of interference 

 than the Mallard or Teal; their flight also is more graceful. 

 On the 16th of May 1891 I flushed a drake Shoveller along 

 with six Mallards from the edge of Monkhill Lough. The 

 Shoveller was easily distinguished during their aerial evolutions 



