The Shoveller 
335 
For some unknown reason Shovellers seem never to get fat like other 
Ducks, and perhaps this is one reason why some hunters do not care 
miuch for them. They are very swift flyers, and sometimes travel, 
[doubtless, at the rate of from sixty to eighty miles an hour. 
. The summer home of the Shoveller tribe is in the vast expanse of 
(territory between Minnesota and Alaska, although some pairs breed as 
far south as Texas; but they are rarely found nesting in the eastern 
! United States. 
In writing of their breeding habits in North Dakota, in The Auk, 
ij 1902, Mr. A. C. Bent says: 
(j “They frequent the same localities as the Blue-winged Teal, are 
equally tame, and probably lay their eggs about the same time as this 
species. We found only two nests of the Shoveller, 
in spite of their universal abundance. From the fact Haunt 
that we frequently saw them flying about in pairs, 
I inferred that many of them do not complete their sets before June 
15, which would make this one of the later-laying species. 
“After the sets are completed, the males associate with Mallards and 
Pintails in the smaller ponds and open sloughs. Nearly every slough, 
meadow, or pond-hole that we visited contained one or more pairs of 
these handsome little Ducks. The charm of collecting and studying 
birds in this highly favored region is greatly enhanced by constantly 
flushing this and the other numerous species of Ducks from every favor- 
able locality. We were kept in a constant state of delightful expectancy, 
and were seldom disappointed. 
“The nesting-ground of the Shoveller is the broad expanse of virgin 
prairie, often far away from the nearest water, sometimes on high, dry, 
ground and sometimes in moist meadow-land or near a slough or pond. 
The first nest that we found was in the center of a hollow in the prairie 
between two knolls, where the ground was moist but not actually wet, 
and where the grass grew thick and luxuriantly. The nest was well 
hidden in the thick, green grass, so that we never should have found it 
if we had not flushed the bird within ten feet of us. 
It was merely a depression in the ground, well lined 
with dry grasses, and sparingly lined with gray down 
around the eggs ; more down would probably have been added as in- 
cubation advanced. The ten eggs which it contained were perfectly 
fresh when collected on June 3 .” 
The Shovellers that in winter inhabit the marshes, ponds, and rice- 
fields of the South Atlantic Coast, reach that region after a long 
overland journey from their summer-home in the Northwestern States 
or in Canada. They come to the coast in the neighborhood of Mary- 
land and then turn southward. The eastern flight thus passes southward 
of the Northeastern States, so that in this part of our country the Shovel- 
ler is rarely found. 
Nest 
and Eggs 
