INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 453 



some vegetation-covered piece of water. The eggs vary in number from 

 six to thirteen, the number most often found being from eight to ten. 



Morris gives the number laid as eight to ten or even fourteen. 

 According to him incubation lasts twenty-one days and the young 

 birds follow their mother to the water as soon as hatched. 



The eggs, at least all I have seen, were quite indistinguishable from 

 those of the Common Teal, in shape, texture and size, and I think in 

 colour. Hume says that they have perhaps a more yellow creamy 

 tinge, but though a few may be more buff or yellow in tone than any 

 of that bird, many are no deeper at all. 



Dresser gives the average as 1*87" by 1"35" ; those in my collection 

 average 1'82" by I'oG", making them out to be rather shorter and 

 broader. 



Genus SPATULA. 



The genus Spatula is distinguished from all other genera except the 

 Australian Malacorliinclms by the shape of the bill which is broadly 

 spatulate, the sub tip being about twice as broad as it is at the base. 

 There are four species whose range is practically cosmopolitan, but 

 only one is represented in India, viz., the Comnaon Shoveller. 



The lamellaB are very long, thin and prominent, and the edges of the 

 upper mandible are much turned down on the terminal quarter. 



The tail feathers number fourteen in both sexes. 

 (29) Spatula clypeata. 

 The Shoveller, 



Spatula clypeata., Jerdon, '' Birds of India," III, p. 796; Hume, "Str. 

 Feath.," 1., p. 260 ; M^m.iUd^^. 402; Butler, ibid, 17, p. 28; 

 Scully, ibid, p. 199 ; Fairbank, ibidj p. 264 ; Ball, ibid, VII, p. 232 ; 

 Hume, ibid, p. 492 ; ibid.^ Cat., No. 957 ; id, "Str. Feath.," VIII, 

 p. 115 ; Scully, ibid, p. 362 ; Legge, "Birds of Ceylon," p. 1086. 

 Hume and Marshall, Game Birds, III, p. 141 ; Vidal, "Str. Feath.," 

 IX, p. 92 ; Butler, ibid., p. 437 ; Reid, ibid, p. 80 ; Davidson, ibid^ p. 

 325; Hume, ibid, p. 417 ; Macgregor, ibid, p. 472 ; Barnes, " Birds 

 of Bombay,'"' p. 401 ; Hume, "Str. Feath.," XI, p. 343 ; Salvadori, 

 "Cat., Birds of British Museum," XXVII, p. 306 ; Blanford, "Avifauna 

 of Birds of India," IV, p. 452. 



Description : Adult Male. — Whole head and neck glossy green, 

 shewing a purple tinge in certain lights, especially on the upper parts : 



