common in winter in suitable places in Afghanistan and Beluchistan,
in Persia, in the Caspian provinces at any rate, in Asia
Minor, Palestine, and the entire breadth, of Northern Africa,
extending southwards to Abyssinia, whereof it is said to be a
permanent resident. It has occurred in every country in Europe,
and is widely distributed throughout Northern and Central
America, possibly, just straggling into the North-Wcst Provinces
of South America.
In no part of the world does it, broadly speaking, range
much north of the Goth parallel of North Latitude, nor much
south of the ioth. Specimens have, indeed, been obtained (at
the great Bear Lake, and the Mackenzie River,) just within the
Arctic circle in North America, at Uleaborg (650 North Latitude)
in Europe, and Gould says, Bogota (5" North Latitude) in
South America, and the same authority asserts that a straggler
has even occurred in Australia, but the normal range
may be fairly stated as lying within the 10th and Goth parallels
of the Northern Hemisphere.
EXCEPT perhaps in Kashmir where Adams asserts that it is
common throughout the year* it is elsewhere with us, whether
in hillst or plains, only a winter visitant.
With us too it is essentially a fresh water bird, and I have
no record of its having ever been observed on the sea coast
in India, though in Europe it is not unfrequently seen there.
In the plains I have no record of its appearance before
the 22nd of October, and, as a rule, it is not until the
middle of November that the great bulk of the birds, (and
though apparently thinly J distributed immense numbers t!o visit
India) arrive. By the end of April all have, as a rule, left
the plains country, though in exceptionally cool seasons a few
may linger in the Peshawar Valley until nearly the middle of
May, and some certainly remain in Kashmir until quite the
end of that month.
garia, about the neighbourhood of Mnralbashi, nnrt are said to collect, for a
short time, near Yarkand, when the cold sets in, previous to their migration southwards."
* This, however, needs confirmation, No one has, as yet, obtained the eggs
there.
t Except in Kashmir, where a good number pass the entire winter, it is in
most places in the Himalayas, more of a bird of passage than a winter resident.
Thus Scully says :—
"The Shoveller is a winter visitor to the Nepal Valley, being most common
there on its migrations to and from the plains, but especially in October and
November. A few birds, however, probably remain in the valley throughout the
cold season."
This, too, is much what Mr. A. Graham Young says in regard to Kullu.
t Mr. I. Davidson writes :—
" In Sholapur, Deccan, in Tumkur, Mysore, and in the Punch Mahals, Gujarat,
this Duck was widely distributed, withont being found in any great numbers in
any place. It is an easy Duck to shoot as it is almost invariably found close to
the uorti feeding behind reeds or other cover. "
Although it may be often seen on the banks of rivers, and
again on large inland lakes, it is perhaps most commonly found
on small pools and ponds. So, too, though it often associates
with other kinds of Wild Fowl, it is, owing to its haunting
localities that most of these would eschew, more commonly
seen by itself or with, at most, a few of the Common Teal in
its company. Where it does occur on the larger pieces of water,
it is, I think, decidedly more generally associated with Teal and
Gadwall than with any other species.
It is a very tame bird. You will meet with it in many parts of
the North-West Provinces on every trumpery little village pond,
half surrounded by huts, the resort of the washermen, and of
the entire population for purposes of ablution, and of the village
herds, driven thither twice a day for water. Filthy is quite
an inadequate epithet for many of these reeking sinks of pollution,
but foul or fair, the Shoveller is equally at home in them,
and may be seen at all hours feeding along the very edge, now
just in and now just out of water, making no epicurian selection,
but feeding on pretty well every organic substance that comes
to hand, nice or nasty.
Doubtless in more savoury localities, such as the more aristocratic
Ducks frequent, insects and their larva;, worms, small
frogs, shells, tiny fish, and all kinds of seeds and shoots of water
grasses, rushes and the like, constitute their food ; but when they
take up their abode on one of these village ponds, and the pond
is a real dirty one, I can assert, from the examination of many
recently killed birds, that it is impossible to say what they will
not eat.
All Ducks are more or less omnivorous, but no other Duck will,
as a rule, frequent the dirty holes in which a pair of Shovellers
often pass the entire winter, sticking to their cess-pool, (for it is
really, as the season advances, little short of this), so long as a
bucketful of liquid filth and mud remains.
At all times their fat has a most rank and unpleasant taste,
but if killed off a clean jhil and skinnid before cooking, they
are not bad, but unless a man is ready to eat Crows and Vultures
he ought steadily to abstain from Shovellers that haunt our
dirty little village pools.
In such situations, too, they are quite as tame, in many places,
as domestic Ducks. You may walk openly up to them, gun in
hand ; when within twenty yards they may waddle into the
water, and as you approach, swim slowly from the shore, but
they will seldom rise until you fire, and even then as often as not
will never attempt to leave the pond, but will settle again after
a circle or two in the air.
Generally you find a pair, or one male and two females on
such ponds. Even on large sheets of water, on which there may
be fifty, they are never in flocks, always in small parties, posted
at different parts of the shore, and taking no heed, apparently,