Programming Excel with VBA and .NET

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Programming Excel with VBA and .NET is a shoveler duck (Anas clypeata). Native to North America and much of the northern terrain of Europe and Asia, shovelers are easily distinguished from other breeds of duck by their oblong, spoon-shaped bills. Shoveler ducks are also characterized by their sexual dimorphism; the male of the species has more ostentatious coloring, with a lustrous green head, neck, and speculum, whereas the shoveler female is tinted in a more subdued palette of browns, grays, and blacks. Both genders have light-blue forewing feathers, visible only when the birds are in flight.

Shoveler ducks subsist in the open wetlands on a diet that consists largely of particles of plant and animal matter, including seeds, leaves, stems, mollusks, and insects. They feed by drawing water into their large spatulate bills, which are covered by approximately 110 teethlike projections called lamellae that filter out food for consumption.

Breeding season for shovelers typically runs from April to June. The female builds her nest on dry land, twirling her body on the ground to dig out a cup-shaped hole, which she lines with grass and feathers. She lays anywhere from 8 to 12 olive-colored eggs, which incubate for up to 25 days. During this time, the shoveler female is extremely protective of her offspring; if forced off her nest, she will frequently defecate on her eggs, a maneuver believed to discourage predation.

The cover image is from the Dover Pictorial ...