SPATULA CLYPEATA. 



EUROPEAN SHOVELER. 



(Plate 60.) 

 Anas clypeata, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., i, p. 200 (1766). 



Spatula clypeata, Salvadori, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxvn, p. 306 (1895) ; 

 Shelley, Birds of Air., i, p. 173 (1896) ; Sharpe, Hand-List of 

 Birds, I, p. 221 (1899) ; Reiehenow, Vogel Afrikas, i, p. 110 

 (1900-01) ; Sclater, Ann. S. Afr. Mus., m, p. 352 (1905) ; Sclater 

 and Stark, Birds of S. Afr., iv, p. 144 (1906). 



Description. The birds figured are an adult drake in full breeding- 

 plumage and a duck with young ones. The female of this species 

 is very like the female of S. capensis, but can be distinguished 

 by the tail-feathers, which are dark-brown with white edges 

 and a pale-brown V-shaped mark on the centre of them, 

 the tail of the V pointing away from the bu'd's body, while the 

 tail-feathers of the female S. capensis are dark brown with 

 slightly paler edges, and irregular rufescent bars. 



DiSTEiBUTioN. The Shoveler is a well-known winter visitor to the 

 British Isles, and many also breed in suitable localities. Probably 

 most of those that breed migrate in autumn southwards, while 

 those that appear in winter come from further north. It 

 is a circumpolar bird, breeding in the Arctic regions of both 

 hemispheres about as far north as 68° north lat. throughout Europe, 

 Asia, and North America. In the northern winter it migrates 

 south to India, Africa, southern Asia and Central and northern 

 South America, including the West Indies. 



It has only once been shot within South African limits, viz. 

 a male in nearly full breeding-plumage in September, 1893, at 

 Riet Vlei near Cape Town. This specimen is now preserved in 

 the South African Museum. It is a regular visitor as far south 

 as Abyssinia, so it is stated in the Fauna of South Africa, and I 

 met with it in some numbers in British East Africa. 



This Shoveler is never likely to be found nesting within 

 South African limits. In Europe it is a somewhat late 



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