HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
pale grey markings on the back, and a white patch 
on the wing, where in the case of the Mallard, for 
instance, it is blue. The duck is browner and 
soberer in general colour, and has a similar white 
wing-patch. The nest of grass and down is 
built on the ground among herbage, generally in a 
dry spot, and the eight to a dozen eggs are dull 
cream-colour, with but little tinge of green. 
SHOVELLER. 
(^Spatula clypeata.^ 
Broad-bill. — The Shoveller is occasionally to be 
seen on inland waters both as a winter visitor 
and as a breeding species, but is never as frequent 
as several of the other species here described. The 
Drake is a very fine bird, with a very dark green 
head and neck, a white breast, and the back and 
wings boldly marked with stripes and patches of 
dark brown, white, and blue-grey. The Duck is 
the usual sober mottled brown. But the most 
distinctive feature of both Drake and Duck is the 
upper mandible of the bill, which is broadened out 
like an inverted spoon, and is quite unlike any- 
thing else in the same family. It is set inside with 
extremely sensitive plates, thus providing the bird 
with an admirable apparatus for perceiving and 
