18 



Mr. Swainson on the Typical Perfection 



hensive division, enjoy an extent of geographic range far 

 above all others. The Shoveller Duck of Europe is not 

 only found from the northern regions to the table-land of 

 Mexico *, but is stated to inhabit the Coromandel coast, and 

 other parts of India j ; while another species, precisely of 

 the same form, is recorded as a native of Australia J. The 

 geographic distribution, then, of the true Shovellers may be 

 termed universal. But among these broad-billed Ducks of 

 the southern hemisphere, we find a very remarkable modi- 

 fication of form ; the breadth of the bill and the length of the 

 laminae are nearly the same, but the edge of the upper man- 

 dible, instead of being smooth, as in the European species, 

 is furnished with a thin membranaceous skin, which conside- 

 rably projects, and hangs down somewhat like a wattle on 



each side. For this form, hitherto uncharacterised, I now 

 propose the name of 



MALACORHYNCHUS, 



and I shall view it, for reasons hereafter stated, as a sub- 

 genus. The bill of the European Shoveller is flexible ; but 

 in this group it is much more so. One species, described by 

 authors under the name of the soft-billed Shoveller, can 

 scarcely exhibit this debility more remarkably than another 

 which is now before me : it came from the same country, 



* Specimens communicated to me by John Taylor, Esq., F.R. S., &c., from this 

 locality, differed not from those brought home by Dr. Richardson. 



f Lath. Gen. Hist., x. 312. J New Holland ShoTeller, 1. x. p, 313. 



