72 
ANATIDiE. 
1 829-3 0, but the species is not procured here regularly every 
season. One, shot on a pond of fresh-water near Mount Stewart, 
county of Down, in the middle of August 1 833, came into my 
possession, and on the 11th of September, the same year, I saw 
a recently killed bird which was purchased in the inland town of 
Lisburn. One was shot on the fresh-water dam at Beers’ Bridge, 
near Belfast, on the 21st of October, 1844. But nearly all the 
shovellers seen in this town are killed in the bay. Pour, shot 
here, from a flock of seven, on December 15th, 1847, came under 
my notice immediately afterwards.* A practised wild-fowl 
shooter imagined, from their manner of feeding, that they were 
wild ducks. They did not attempt to dive until wounded and 
endeavouring to escape, and then dived but badly. Two of them 
were in the beautiful plumage of the adult male. In weight, 
they varied from 12 1 to 15 ounces, and were all in very fine con- 
dition, so much so, that I measured the thickness of fat on one of 
them, and found it to be an inch on the breast. The stomachs 
of the five contained minute pebbles only. Yarrell describes the 
adult male as having the bill lead-coloured, but this organ in 
both birds is wholly — above and below — of a shining black ; a 
third male, all but adult (the next spring moult would have made 
him so), has the bill blackish, with a reddish-brown tinge apparent, 
when viewed with the light upon it ; the bill of the fourth, a 
female, is dusky-black with a reddish-brown tinge. Tarsi and 
toes of all four are reddish- orange, those of the female palest. 
Irides of all are dark, golden-yellow ; those of the female the least 
pure in colour. 
The latest period of the spring in which this species has come 
under my notice here, was on the 3rd of April, 1849. A splendid 
adult male, then shot, was accompanied by another in similar 
plumage, which was wounded. The specimen was 18 oz. in 
weight ; its length 1 9 inches ; wing, from carpus to end of quills, 
9 inches ; first quill of each wing longest, and not the second, as 
mentioned by Yarrell ; — in another specimen examined, the second 
is the longest in the wing : the character of comparative length, 
* A couple were on sale in Belfast market about three weeks previously. 
