526 LAMELLIllOSTEAL SWIMMERS — AXSERES. 



following particulars : The maxilla is less expanded terminally, the edges being nearly parallel ; 

 but on each side, near the end, is a inenibraneous, somewhat angular lobe, the end of the mandible 

 being nearly truncated, and the nail much smaller and narrower than in Spatula ; the nostrils are 

 much smaller, and near the base of the bill ; the tertials and rectrices are broad and rounded, 

 instead of acute. 



The two American species of Spatula differ more particularly as follows : — 



1. S. clypeata. Male: Head and neck dark metallic green ; jugulum white ; abdomen and 



sides chestnut, unspotted ; back and inner scapulars dusky ; outer scapulars white. 

 Female : Back and scapulars nearly uniform dusky ; bill brown, the mandible dull 

 orange. 



2. S. platalea.i Male : Head and neck buff, streaked with black ; jugulum, back, and scap- 



ulars (outer as well as inner) deep cinnamon-buff, thickly marked with roundish spots of 

 black ; abdomen and sides cliestniit, speckled with black. Female : Back and scapulars 

 dusky, the feathers broadly bordered and otherwise variegated with buff ; bill wholly 

 black. 



The female and young male of S. platalea may also be readily distinguished from those of S. cly- 

 p)eata by the much longer, more cuneate tail, the rectrices being almost, if not quite, as acuminate 

 as in the species of Pcecilonetta ; thus, while the middle rectrices in a female of S. clypeata measure 

 about 3.75 inches, those of an example of S. platalea measure 4.25, or half an inch longer. 



Spatula clypeata. 



TEE SHOVELLER; SPOON-BILL DUCK. 



Anas clypeata, Linn. S. N. ed. 10, I. 1758, 124 ; ed, 12, I. 1766, 200. — AVils. Am. Orn. YIII. 1814, 



65, pi. 67, fig. 7. — Sw. & EiCH. F. B. A. II. 1831, 439. — Nutt. Man. II. 1634, 375.— AuD. 



Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 241, pi. 327 ; Synop. 1839, 283 ; B. Am. VI. 1843, 293, pi. 394. 

 Spatula clypeata, BoiE, Isis, 1822, 564. — Baikd, B. N. Am. 1858, 781 ; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no, 



583. — CouEs, Key, 1872, 288; Check List, 1873, no. 498; 2d ed. 1881, no. 718; B. N. W. 



1874, 570. — KiDOxW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 608. 

 Anas rubens, Gmel. S. N". I. ii. 1788, 419. 

 ? Anus mexicana. Lath. Ind. Orn, II. 1790, 857. 

 Clypeata macrorhyjichos, platyrhynclios, xjomarinM, brachyrhynchos, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. 876, 



877, 878, 879. 



Hab. The whole of the Northern Hemisphere ; Australia. Breeding from Texas to Alaska ; 

 wintering as far south as Guatemala, Cuba, and Jamaica. 



Sp. Char. Adult male, in winter : Head and neck dark metallic bluish green, much duller than 

 in Anas boschas ; breast and outer scapulars white, the former sometimes spotted with dusky ; entire 

 abdomen and sides uniform chestnut ; crissum dark metallic bluish green, bounded anteriorly by 

 a band of finely undulated grayish white. Back and inner scapulars dusky, the feathers sometimes 

 bordered with white ; longer, lanceolate scapulars marked with a mesial lanceolate stripe of white ; 

 wing-coverts light grayish blue, the last row tipped with white, forming a narrow band across 

 the wing ; speculum bright metallic green, very narrowly tipped with white ; tertials dusky 

 black, with faint green reflections, and marked toward the end with an indistinct mesial stripe of 

 grayish white ; primaries and their coverts diUl slate-gray ; rump and upper tail-covi'rts black, the 

 former with faint, the latter with Ijright, green reflections ; rectrices chiefly grayish white, the middle 



1 Spatula platalea. 



Pato espatulato, Azap.a, Apunt. III. 1805, 431 (Buenos Ayres). 



Anas platalea, Vieill. Nouv. Dirt. V. 1816, 157 (ex Azara, 1. c). 



Spaitda plnfalca, Haptl. IiuI. Azara, 1847, 27. — ScL. & Salv. Nom. Neotr. 1873, 130 ; P. Z. 



S. 1876, 396 (monographic). 

 Ehynchasjns maculatus, "Gould, MS." Jard. & Selby, Illustr. Orn. pi. 147. 

 Dafila ccesio-scapulata, Eeichenb. Natat. pi. 51, fig. 180. 



