No mariner, floating on a wreck, could behold succor approach with greater transport than he felt at this transient view of the button; but the fluctuation of the water was such, and the turn of the tide so slow, that it was yet some time before he dared venture to assure himself that the button was yet fairly above the level of the flood. At length, a second button appearing at intervals, his sensations may rather be imagined than described, and his joy gave him spirits and resolution to hold on four or five hours longer, until the waters had fully retired. One of the most tender and delicately flavored of the ducks which find their way into our markets is the Shoveller, (_Anas Clypeata_). The Shoveller is a very handsome bird, though its bill is disproportionally large, and very peculiar in shape—it is about three inches in length, of a black color, widened toward the extremity; and the fibres along the margin are so much produced that the bill has the appearance of being surrounded all along the gape with a fringe of hairs. The form of the bill is well adapted to the habit of the animal, which is that of picking up very small animal matters in the shallows and runs of the rivers, and as these fibrous appendages are very sensitive, they enable it to detect with great nicety all substances that are edible. The Shoveller is an inland bird, and somewhat discursive. It is found, we believe with very little difference of appearance, as well in the Eastern continent as in our own; but, so far as is known, it is a bird of the northern hemisphere, and is not met with in any part of the south. On the continent of Europe it is pretty abundant, and it breeds in the marshes of the middle latitudes; but in Britain it is not common, even in the fens, and, in our own country, it is much more migratory than in the eastern continent. This, however, does not establish a difference in the birds themselves, but may readily be accounted for in the difference of the two countries. The American summer is more dry than the European, and the American marshes in the middle latitudes partake of this drought; or, if they do not, they are covered with pumpers and other evergreens, so that they do not answer well for the summer resort of dabbling birds. The northern latitudes of America, again, are remarkably well adapted on account of their flatness, the abundance of water, the high temperature, and the corresponding great production of small animals. Yet, in respect of latitude, the climate to which the shoveller moves northward during the American summer is not more northerly than those in which it breeds in central Europe, although, from the different character of the seasons, it ranges more in the one country than in the other. In all countries where it is known, this bird forms its nest in the tallest and thickest tufts of rushes and other aquatic herbage, and generally also in places which are not accessible by man, or indeed by any of the land mammalia.