That the bird also breeds in Dorsetshire is certain, two young birds which are in the collection o f
W. Thompson, Esq., o f Weymouth, having been shot in the Frome river, a few miles below Dorchester, in
July 1867.
The Shoveller seldom, if ever, dives for its food ; neither does it ramble by night over the land far away
from water. Its principal nourishment consists o f aquatic grasses and other succulent plants, to which is
probably added small freshwater mollusks, worms, and. insects, for securing which its remarkably constructed
bill is admirably adapted, the edges of both mandibles being thickly beset with fine pectinated laminae, aptly
compared by Wilson to a weaver’s reed, by means of which the bird has the power o f retaining any nutritive
matters it may find, and o f rejecting the mud and other substances not congenial to its stomach.
The Shoveller is subject to two very marked seasonal changes o f plumage. During winter and spring its
black bill, blue-green bead, white breast, chestnut-coloured abdomen, blue shoulders, and black and white
streaming tertiaries render him a very beautiful object, his beauty being greatly enhanced by his pale
yellow pupils, seated like gems in the centre o f bis blue-green head; but, as soon as the female begins to
incubate, those colours disappear, and, like the Mallard and the Teal, he assumes the more uniform
brown colouring o f the female; this garb is again thrown off in October or November, and the former
one reassuméd.
Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., has called my attention to a fact, which, indeed, had not escaped my notice, that
some females are more red or chestnut-coloured on the abdomen than others, the reason of which is not well
understood; it may be due to age, or to the normal change not having taken place. On reference to the
accompanying Plate it will be seen that, ordinarily, the female, besides differing from her mate in
having a mottled brown garb, has the eyes brown and the bill olive, while the legs and feet are, like
those of the male, o f a fine orange-yellow.
As a tenant for the aviary or home ponds and lakes no bird is better adapted than the Shoveller, its
disposition being as tame as its plumage is ornamental. When in good condition its flesh as a viand
for the table is unsurpassed by that of any of the Duck tribe; indeed so much is it prized on this account,
that authors on both sides o f the Atlantic bear testimony to its excellence. Selby says “ it is very
delicate and well-flavoured, and, in consequence, highly esteemed;” Wilson that it is uniformly juicy and
well-tasted; and Audubon that “ 110 sportsman who is a judge will ever pass by a Shoveller to shoot a
Canvass-back,” the excellent quality o f whose flesh is proverbial. As an article o f food it is therefore
much sought after; and hundreds are sent from Holland to the London markets during every autumn
and winter.
The Shoveller breeds in the central parts o f marshy districts, the nest, which is placed on the ground,
being usually formed in the tufts o f coarse herbage abounding in such situations. The eggs are from ten to
twelye in number, o f a buffy white, with a faint tinge o f green, and measure a trifle more than two inches in
length by one inch and a half in breadth.
The young were formerly stated to be at first very shapeless and ugly, and the bill to be as broad as the
body; but this was long since disproved by Mr. Youell, in the thirteenth volume o f the ‘ Transactions o f the
Linnean Society,’ and by Yarrell, who says:— “ That the bill o f the young Shoveller, when hatched, is not
dilated laterally, I can myself answer. During the. summer o f 1841 a pair o f Shovellers made a nest and
brought óiit their young 011 one o f the islands in the Gardens of the Zoological Society. The bills o f these
ducklings were as narrow and the sides as parallel as the bills o f some Gadwalls which were hatched at the
same, time on another island in the same piece o f water.”
The Plate represents two males and a female, o f the natural , size. The plant is the Marsh Marygold
( Caltha palustris).