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.