124 ANSERIFORMES CHAP. 
occurring in the Canaries, is greyish above, with brown and buff 
marblings, and whitish below with brown bars. — It flies low, utters 
a croaking whistle, and lays ten or eleven buff eggs in isolated 
tussocks. Both sexes of Walacorhynchus membranaceus, the Pink- 
eyed Duck of Australia and Tasmania (p. 111), are grey-brown with 
lighter dots, and some white on the face, wing, and tail; the under 
parts are whiter with brown bands, while behind each blackish eye- 
patch is a pink mark, situated below a dark line running to the 
occiput and down the nape. The bill is greenish, and the feet are 
emerald-coloured or yellowish. This species is a fearless denizen of 
still waters, with a habit of laying its six rich buff eggs in old 
Herons’ nests, in holes in trees, or on flat branches. 
Spatula clypeata, the Shoveller, which now breeds in many 
parts of Britain, extends from about the Arctic Circle to North 
Africa, Central Asia, and the United States, wintering southward 
to Casamance, Somaliland, Ceylon, Borneo, China, Japan, Colombia, 
and the West Indies, and visiting the Hawaiian islands, the Gil- 
bert Group, and Australia. It is dark brown, releved by a green 
head, white neck, chestnut breast and belly; the longer scapulars 
bemg black with white median stripes, the wing-coverts pale 
blue, the speculum green with white anterior border, the bill 
plumbeous, the feet orange. The female is red-brown with 
duller wings, while the bill of the young shows the spoon-shaped 
form in about three weeks. S. rhynchotis, of Southern Australia, 
Tasmania, and the New Zealand area, has a dark brown crown, and 
blue-grey neck, with a white lateral line, the chest being whitish 
and the lower parts chestnut, both with black bands; S. plutalea, 
ranging from Peru and Paraguay to Patagonia and the Falklands, 
is reddish with round black spots, having a black crown and 
rump; whereas S. capensis, of South Africa, has a grey-brown head 
and neck, and brown mantle and under parts with darker mottlings. 
The wings and scapulars are similar in all the above, except in 8. 
capensis, Where the latter are dark blue-green. The females hardly 
differ from each other, but that of S. rhynchotis is darker, that of 
S. platalea has a shorter bill, while in both sexes of S. capensis the 
speculum hasa blue tinge. Shovellers are somewhat silent birds 
with a peculiar habit of swimming and feeding in circles over spots 
where Diving Ducks are submerged * ; the diet includes herbage, 
worms, molluscs, crustaceans, and insects ; the eggs are pale green. 
1 A. Newton, Dict. Birds, 1896, pp. 841-842. 
