370 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



^ 



on either side of the vent a patch of white, freckled with 

 black ; under tail-coverts black, tinged with shining green ; tail 

 dark brown ; irides bright yellow ; bill dark purplish .black, 

 the under mandible clouded with yellow ; legs and feet yellow. 

 The female has the head and neck buff, striated with dark 

 brown, the latter colour predominating on the crown of the 

 head and back of the neck ; all the upper surface dark brown, 

 each feather margined with whitish brown ; the wings as in 

 the male, but the colours and markings much less brilliant 

 and decided ; all the under surface mottled brown and buff. 



Sp. 589. SPATULA CLYPEATA. 



European Shoveller. 



Anas clypeata, Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 200. 



rubens, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 519. 



Clypeata macrorhynchos, platyrhynchos, pomarina, et brachyrhnychos, 



Brehm, Handb. der Naturg. aller Vog. Deutschl., pp. 876, 877, 



878, 879. 

 Rhynchaspis clypeata, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de I'Acad. Sci., tom.xliii. 



seances des 15 et 22 Sept. 1856. 



Although I have no Australian skin of this species to con- 

 firm the following remarks, I must ask my ornithological 

 readers both in Australia and Europe to take my word for 

 the occasional appearance of the bird in Australia. When I 

 visited New South Wales during the rainy season of 1839, 

 all the depressed parts of the land were filled with water, and 

 the lagoons here, there, and everywhere were tenanted by 

 hundreds of Ducks of various species, and every now and 

 then one, two, or more beautifully plumaged Shovellers were 

 seen among them ; but I did not succeed in shooting one of 

 them, and must have left the matter in doubt as to the par- 

 ticular species, if the late Mr. Coxen, of Yarrundi, had not had 

 the skin of a splendid old male in his possession, which he 

 had himself shot, and which, after a careful examination, 1 

 found to be identical with the /Spatula clypeata of Britaili and 



