SHOVELLER DUCK. 
295 
the Pin-tail. Its flight resembles that of the Blue-winged Teal ; and in ten- 
derness as well as in flavour, it rivals, as an article of food, that beautiful 
bird. No sportsman who is a judge will ever pass a Shoveller to shoot a 
Canvass-back. It is rarely however found on salt water, and that only 
when compelled to resort thither. 
In the beginning of May, when I was in Texas, I found Shovellers breed- 
ing in considerable numbers. The males had already left the females, and 
were seen on the sand-bars of the Bay of Galveston, up to the river St. Ja- 
cinto, but none of my party discovered the nest. During the autumn, they 
are to be seen on the waters adjoining the Ohio, and generally in ponds in 
company with the Bald-pate or American Widgeon, when they become very 
fat, and afford delicious eating. At this time I have been often much pleased 
when, on perceiving a flock of eight or nine of these Ducks, probably mem- 
bers of a single family, and cautiously approaching them, while they were 
busily engaged in searching for food with their heads and necks immersed, 
I have obtained several of them at the first shot, and as the survivors flew 
off have succeeded in procuring one or two more. On such occasions, they 
rise almost perpendicularly to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and then 
fly off in a direct course, in the manner of Mallards. 
Shoveller, Anas clypeata, Wils. Arner. Orn., vol. viii. p. 45. 
Anas clypeata, Bonap. Syn., p. 382. 
Anas clypeata, Shoveller , Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 439. 
Shoveller, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 383. 
Shoveller Duck, Anas clypeata , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 241. 
Male, 204, 314. Female, 17, 291. 
Breeds abundantly in Texas, westward to the Columbia and Fur Coun- 
tries. During winter from the Middle Atlantic Districts to Texas. Common. 
Adult Male. 
Bill longer than the head, higher than broad at the base, depressed and 
much widened towards the end, where its breadth is doubled. Upper man- 
dible with the dorsal line sloping and very slightly concave, the ridge at 
the base broad, narrowed over the nostrils ; sides nearly erect at the base, 
gradually more declinate and convex ; the tip very broadly rounded, with 
the unguis oblong, rather small, curved and rounded at the extremity ; the 
margins soft, with very numerous lamellas, which are prolonged beyond the 
edges and taper to a point, unless at the commencement of the broadest 
part of the bill. Nasal groove elliptical, and filled by the soft membrane 
of the bill ; nostrils elliptical, pervious, placed near the ridge. Lower 
mandible slightly curved upwards, with the angle very long and narrow, 
the unguis obovate. 
