Canard gobe-mouche. Shrimps have been found in itS'-
stomach ; and Mr. Audubon mentions that iih. '.‘North America,
in some parts of which this duck is abundant, it feeds
upon leeches, small fishes, ground-worms, and snarls.-«’ The’
flesh-is tender, juicy, and of good flavour. The e|®it§
lence of the Canvass-back Duck of America, as an article
of. food, is. proverbial, yet Mr. Audubon also jays, that, no
sportsman who is a judge will’ ever go by a Shoveler to- shoot
a Canvass-back.
Wild-fowl are probably moryplentiful on the eastern side
of England, from Essex to Lincolnshire,- than in most other-
counties, perhaps, because -they are .opposite,I and- nearest- to
Holland, where most of them are - very^abundantI Mr. Saline®
mentions that a . pair bred annually amongst -• some-:-green
rushes on the warren at Stanford, in Norfolk. The Rev.
Richard Lubbock, in a communication- to me from Norfolk,
says, $$ the Shoveler used frequently to breed at ^Winterten^.
Horsey, &c., and has not yet discontinued." I have:seen-«twe
nests at different times ; eight eggsin one, nine in.the other,
placed- in a very dry part of ,the^marsh,[.nat a considerable
distance from the Broad.” The -authors of thfe -Cataloeue
of the Norfolk and-Suffolk Birds; say, “ sthe Shoveler remains
all the year in . Norfolk. We have twice met with cits nest
in Winterton Marshes. I t was placed in a tuft-of gi€ss,
where the ground was quite dry, and was made of fine grass:
After the female begins to sit,.she covers her eggs with down
plucked from her body. In the spring of 1818 the warrener
at Winterton found several- nests belonging to.-this species,*'
containing inr the who]eHSfty*-six ‘yeggs Mr. J . Youelly of
Yarmouth, in a communication to the Linnean Society, says,
that he, in one season, obtained upwards of thirty eggs of
the Shoveler Duck. These eggs were put under some domestic
fowls, and most of them were hatched; but he sue*
ceeded in rearing only two of them. Their bills, when a
few dayl^ oidy were not longér than tho'se of the domestic
duck, ^ but-vi}t> the age - I w-ééks' they had obviously
increased in length more than those of the common duckling.
One of'these birds, a male,dived till'-'it was ten months old,
a id |h in had attained^'in- a -considerable degree the adult
plumage of the^Shoyeler.-
-That the bill óf the* young tShoVeler wheti hatched is nót
dilated laterally," as „haalbeen described, I eat' myself answer.
During thet'slmmer of 1841. a pair of‘ Shoveler® made a nest,
and -brought' out? their;young on onevof&the islands in the
Garden of the Zoological 'Society; the bills*of these ducklings
were as narrow, ’'amd^the^sides as parallel, as the bills
of fëèm'e /yöung Gadwalls which' were hatched at the--same
timeden' anidsll/td^ini» the same^ie'dë of .'water. ’ T h e ^ g 'jis
buffy white, tinged with green; - two -inches' two lines long,
by - one inch and-'Six lines in breadth.
Although 'thè* Shoveler formerly bred in Romififjl Marsh,
it<4s'-tio-Wi-cbmp'aTatively rare there, and also, along the line
of thfe southern counties*to: Cornwall, i^ t'ls not-uncommon
in .North Walexin winter, and probably , breeds in Ireland.
Mr. Heysham has i nfet with it only' a few times in the
western parts of Cumberland." I t is not mentioned as visit*
ing Qrkriéy’ör Shetland; and Mr. Dann tells me -this duck
is-by no means common in the.parts of Scandinavia where he
resided^ but is chiefly confined‘to the.South' ofj| Sweden. I t
is'found‘in Gothland|$in Russia and Germany; is* abundant
in Holland; breeds regularly in the marshes of France ;< is
seen on its’•passage about Genoa and in Italy twice in every
year, in the spring and again in 'November; frequents the
northern parts of Africa, i®'- called in consequence the Barbary
Shoveler ; and specimelmhave been brought from South
Africa by Dr. Andrew Smith. Mr.‘ Strickland observed this
species, at Smyrna in winter; Messrs. Dickson and Ross
sent the Zoological Society specimens from Erzerum; and