288 ANATIDH, DUCKS. —GEN. 258, 259. 
Cass., Proc. Phila. Acad. 1848, 195, and Ill. 82, pl. 25; Lawr., Ann. 
Lye. N. Y. 1852, 220; Bp., 780, and Stansbury’s Rep. 322. cyYANOPTERA. 
258. Genus SPATULA Boie. 
Shoveller. Broad-bill. Bill twice as wide at the end as at the base ; with 
very numerous .aud prominent luminz. Head and neck of g green; fore 
breast white ; belly purplish-chestnut ; wing coverts blue; speculum green, 
bordered with black and white ; some scapulars blue, others green, all white- 
striped; bill blackish; feet red. ¢ 
known by bill and wings. 20; wing 
94; tarsus 14; bill 24-22. N. Am., 
abundant. Wuxs., viii, 65, pl. 67, f. 
(5) NUET..) loo GeeAUID saviors 
pl. 394; Bp.,. 781. . : CLyPEATA: 
259. Genus AIX Swainson. 
Summer Duck. Wood Duck. 
Crested; head iridescent green and 
purple, with parallel curved, white 
superciliary and postocular stripes, 
Z and a broad, forked, white throat 
Fic. 189. Summer Duck. patch ; 18-20; wing 83-94; tail 
43-5; tarsus 14-14; bill 14; ¢@ with the head mostly gray. N. Am., 
abundant, breeding in most sections, nesting in trees. WU1s., vili, 97, pl. 
10, 4.3; Nurr.5 a, 394; Aun. vi, 271, plo; Bp.) (Sonne mSEONS ae 
Subfamily FULIGULIN A. Sea Ducks. 
Tarsi scutellate in front; hind toe lobate. The large membranous flap depending 
from the hind toe distinguishes this group from the preceding, probably without 
exception. While the general form is the same as that of the Anatine, the feet are 
notably larger, with relative shorter tarsi, longer toes, and broader webs, and placed 
somewhat further back, in consequence of which the gait is still more awkward and 
constrained than the ‘‘ waddle” of ordinary ducks; but swimming powers are 
enhanced, and diving is facilitated. A large number of the species are exclusively 
maritime, but this is no more the case with all of them, than is the reverse with the 
river ducks. These birds feed more upon mollusks and other animal substances 
(not, however, upon fish, like the mergansers) than the river ducks do, and their 
flesh, as a rule, is coarser, if not entirely too rank to be eaten; there are, however, 
single exceptions to this, as in the case of the canvas-back. The sexes are unlike, 
as among the Anatine ; and besides the difference in color, the 9 is often distin- 
guished by the absence or slight development of certain tuberosities of the bill that 
the @ of several species, as of scoters and eiders, possesses. A large majority of 
the species inhabit the Northern Hemisphere ; there are some forty in all, exhibiting 
a good deal of diversity in minor details, but to no such extent as the number of 
current genera would imply. Among notable exotics, we have the soft-billed 
Hymenolemus malacorhynchus of New Zealand, and the short-winged Micropterus 
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