THE SHOVELERS. 267 



Adult Female. — General colour above dusky-brown, with ashy 

 margins and irregular sandy-buff markings and marblings, the 

 scapulars paler, barred and edged with whitish or pale buff; 

 lower back and rump blackish-brown, the upper tail-coverts 

 edged and irregularly barred with white or buff ; wing-coverts 

 blue like the male, the greater series more dingy and tipped 

 with white ; the quills as in the male and the speculum also 

 metallic green, but the inner secondaries brown ; crown of 

 head nearly uniform blackish, as also the nape ; lores, fore- 

 part of cheeks, and chin whitish ; remainder of sides of face 

 and sides of neck dull reddish-buff, streaked with narrow lines 

 of dusky ; the lower throat similarly streaked ; remainder of 

 under surface buff, a little paler in the centre of the abdomen ; 

 the chest and sides of body and flanks scalloped with dusky 

 bars and markings, principally of a horse-shoe shape, very 

 thickly distributed on the chest and less closely so on the 

 flanks ; the lower abdomen and under tail-coverts spotted 

 with dusky ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white. Total 

 length, 17 inches; culmen, 2*6; wing, 8-8 ; tail, y6 ; tarsus, 

 1-25. 



The young male in its first plumage, according to Count 

 Salvadori, resembles the old female, but is distinguished by its 

 more brightly coloured wings, the bill being pale reddish- 

 brown, and the legs and feet flesh-coloured. 



The male, after breeding, passes into a dark plumage, like 

 that of the female, but with the crown dark brown. Mr. De 

 Winton tells me that the pattern of this summer dress of the 

 male is very much like that of the old female, but is much 

 more rufous, and the bill becomes orange and black, the feet 

 red, and the iris is orange instead of lemon-grey. All trace 

 of the breeding-dress is gone, no bright colours remaining, 

 except the blue of the wing-coverts. 



Young in Down. — Nearly uniform above, like the nestling 

 Wigeon, with some indistinct paler spots, and a dark brown 

 stripe through the eye, as in the Mallard. The bill is not 

 widened at the tip, but the spatulated form is very rapidly 

 developed. 



Hybrids — Apparently few instances of the crossing of the 



