EASTEEN SHOVELEE. 
remarks, I must ask my ornithological readers both in Australia and Europe 
to take my word for the occasional appearance of the bird in Australia. 
When I visited New South Wales during the rainy season of 1839, all the 
depressed parts of the land were filled with water, and the lagoons here, 
there, and everywhere were tenanted by hundreds of Ducks of various 
species, and every now and then one, two, or more beautifully plumaged 
Shovelers were seen among them ; but I did not succeed in shooting one 
of them, and must have left the matter in doubt as to the particular 
species, if the late Mr. Coxen, of Yarrundi, had not had the skin of a 
splendid old male in his possession, which he had himself shot, and 
which, after a careful examination, I found to be identical with the 
Spatula clypeata of Britain and the European continent. Misfortune, I regret 
to say, attended Mr. Coxen’s specimen, for a day or two afterwards 
a rat or some other kind of vermin entered the room in which it was 
kept, ate off its bill and legs, and so otherwise mutilated the skin as 
to render it useless. The debris would still have been saved had I not 
hoped and felt assured of obtaining other examples with my gun : this 
hope, however, was never realised. 
“ To this subject, therefore, I recommend the attention of those in 
Australia, who will doubtless meet with the bird some day when the country 
is subject to a partial inundation. That this species should extend its 
wanderings to Australia is not a matter of surprise, when we know that it 
has been found within the Tropics both in the Old and New Worlds.” 
Campbell, sixty years after the date of the first occurrence, knew of no 
further record, but notes that a correspondent wrote him regarding a strange 
bird shot at Jandilla, Queensland, some years previously, which he concluded 
might have been a European Shoveler. 
Until fresh evidence is forthcoming this bird cannot be admitted to the 
Australian List, though it is quite probable that careful watching might 
reveal a rare straggler ; I have therefore given detailed description Whereby 
such could be recognised. 
The male bird described was collected in Assam, on the 2nd of April, 1905. 
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