426 AVES. 



longer neck, the bill more equal, and not so thick a body; they walk 

 better, and feed on aquatic plants and seeds as much as on fish, &c. 

 The inflations of their trachea consist of a bony and cartilaginous 

 homogeneous substance. They also admit of some subdivisions. 



Rhynchaspis, Leach. 



A subgenus very remarkable for a long bill, the upper mandible 

 of vi^hich, forming the exact half of a perfect cylinder, is widened at 

 the end. Its lamellae are so long and delicate that they resemble 

 hairs. These birds feed on small worms, which they obtain fi'om 

 the mud on the edge of brooks, Sec. 



M.n. dypeata, L.; Souchei commufi, Enl. 971, 972; Frisch, 161, 

 162, 163; Wils. VIII, Ixvii, 7; Naum. 49, f. 70, 71 (The Shove- 

 ler). A beautiful duck, with a green head and neck, white 

 breast, red belly, and brown back; the wings are variegated with 

 white, ash colour, green, brown, &c. It visits France in the 

 spring, and is excellent game. The lower part of its trachea is 

 but slightly inflated. It is the Chenerotes of Pliny. 



An. fasdata, Sh., Nat. Misc. pi. 697, is another species found 

 in New Holland. The edges of its upper mandible are extended 

 on each side into a membranous appendage. 



Tadorna.(I) 



The bill very much flattened towards the end, and bulging into 

 a salient lump at base. 



n. tadorna, L. ; Enl. 53; Frisch, 166; Naum. I, c. 55, f. 103 

 and 104. (The Shieldrake.) The most highly coloured of all the 

 European Ducks: white: the head green; a cinnamon-coloured 

 cincture round the breast; the wing varied with black and white, 

 red and green. Common on the shores of the North Sea, and 

 of the Baltic, where it lays in the downs, and frequently in holes 

 abandoned by rabbits. Its bifurcation is inflated into two nearly 

 similar osseous capsules. 

 Some Ducks of this second division have some naked parts about 

 the head, and very often a lump on the base of the bill. 



An. moschata, L,., Enl. 989, commonly but improperly called 

 The Muscovy Buck; originally from South America, where it is 

 still found in its wild state, and where it perches on trees; is 

 now very common in our poultry yards, where it mixes with 



(I) Tudorne, the name of this bird in Belon. Buffon, following' Turner, mis- 

 took it for the Chenalopex of the ancients. 



