The Creoles of Louisiana are well acquainted with this species, under the name of “Micoine,” the etymology of which I am unable to trace. In that country it arrives, both from the westward and from the eastern inland districts, along with the Blue-winged Teal, or at the commencement of autumn. It associates with that species, to which, as well as to the Green-winged, the Mallard, the Dusky Duck, and the Gadwall, I should consider it very nearly allied, notwithstanding the peculiar expansion of its bill. The Shovellers remain in the lower parts of Louisiana during the whole of the winter, and depart along with the Blue-wings between the end of April and the middle of May. There, in early spring, they resort chiefly to ponds, where they feed on grasses and their seeds, as well as at times a small kind of onion, the bulbs of which they pull up from the moist grounds on their margins. This may perhaps to some seem strange, but I have long since made up my mind to learn from Nature, and believe what is, rather than what philosophers imagine ought to be. Having fed through the night, they collect towards dawn into large bands, and betake themselves to the margins of sand-bars on the Mississippi, where they spend the greater part of the day. At other times I have found them swimming or wading along the muddy margins of ponds and streams, immersing the head and part of the neck while alternately moving the bill to either side, in the manner of the Roseate Spoonbill, sifting as it were the contents of the soft mud or water, and ejecting the substances unfit for food. Repeated inspection of the stomach has shewn me that the Shoveller is not more nice as to the quality of its food than the Mallard or any other of the Duck tribe, for I have found in it leeches, small fishes, large ground-worms, and snails. They never however, I believe, feed by semi-immersion, like the Mallards and Teals, nor do they dive unless hard pressed, or when in a sportive mood, when they will dash for a moment beneath the surface.
This species is generally considered scarce in the United States, and I believe it is so, for, although many pass northward and breed in the Fur Countries, a greater number spend the summer months in the Texas and the districts farther westward. It is however abundant on the streams of the Rocky Mountains, as well as on the tributaries of the Columbia River, where it was frequently observed by Dr Townsend, during summer.
We have no Ducks in the United States whose plumage is more changeable than that of the male of this beautiful species. While the female is sitting on her eggs, he undergoes a moult, after which he appears mottled, and seems as if inclined to assume the garb of his partner. From this period, the beginning of July, until late in November, very few finely-coloured males are to be seen, and only such as have not mated that season, in which case they do not moult until the beginning of winter, as if to be the sooner ready to associate with females on the approach of the next breeding season.
In the Carolinas, this species, though found during winter in the rice fields, is not abundant; more than three or four being seldom seen together. In our Central and Eastern Districts, they are rather rare, and a male in full dress is not to be obtained without difficulty, although I have seen some in the markets of New York and Philadelphia.
The Shoveller walks prettily, and I have often admired its movements in the puddles formed by heavy dashes of rain in our southern corn-fields, where I have found it in company with the Wood Duck, the Mallard, and the Pin-tail. Its flight resembles that of the Blue-winged Teal; and in tenderness 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 breeding 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 Jacinto, 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 members 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.
Anas clypeata, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 200.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 856.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 382.
Shoveller, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 45, pl. 67, fig. 7.
Anas clypeata, Shoveller, Richards. and Swains. Faun. Bor. Amer. vol. ii. p. 439.
Shoveller, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 439.