ANATIN:. 401 
THE SHIELDRAKE. 
d. Length, 23°5 to 25:25; expanse, 41 to 46; wing, 12°5 to 
13°6 ; tail, 4°75 to 5°5 ; tarsus, 2:1 to 2:3 ; bill from gape, 2°2 to 
eat; weight, 21. to 214, 
?. Length, 20°8 to 22; expanse, 39 to 42; wing, 11°75 to 
124; tail, 42 to 49; tarsus, 1:95 to 2:07; bill from gape, 2°71 to 
2:2; weight, 2 to 2, Ibs. 
Bill deep red ; nail dusky; irides brown ; legs and feet fleshy- 
pink to fleshy-red. 
Male, head and upper part of neck deep blackish-green, with 
glossy reflections ; lower part of the neck, back, and wing-coverts, 
rump, and base of the tail, white, the latter black tipped ; 
seapulars black ; primaries black ; greater-coverts, forming the 
speculum, rich bronzed-green, three or four of the secondaries 
next the black, with their outer webs, rich orange-brown ; lower 
plumage white; a broad band of ferruginous-brown across the 
breast, the ends passing upwards and uniting between the 
shoulders ; a mesial line on the abdomen, widening at the vent, 
black ; under tail-coverts pale reddish-brown. 
The male is rather brighter in color than the female, and 
during the breeding season acquires a large fleshy knob at the 
base of the upper mandible. 
_ The Shieldrake, within our limits, has only been recorded from 
Sind, where it occurs as a cold weather visitant. It affects the 
Se coast principally, but is occasionally found on the larger 
lakes, 
Famity, Anatidee. 
Bill broader at the base than high, shallow, depressed, of nearly 
equal width throughout, or wider at the tip ; both mandibles 
with numerous transverse lamelle ; nostrils sub-basal or nearly 
median ; tarsus moderately short, set far back on the body. 
Sus-ramity, Anatine. 
Hind-toe not bordered by a membrane; head of moderate 
size; neck long and more or less slender ; bill usually of even 
width throughout, or wider at the tip, not raised at the base ; 
lamellz numerous, fine ; legs set a little more forward than in 
the next group, and they can walk tolerably well; the wings 
of most are long, and they fly rapidly. 
Genus, Spatula, Boie. 
Bill long, the upper mandible wide, flattened in front of the 
nostrils and much dilated at the tip, or spatulate; the nail small ; 
lamellz very fine, like cilia, and projecting ; tail slightly cuneate, 
of 14 feathers; tarsus short, cosmopolite. 
Spatula clypeata, Lin. 
957.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. IT, p. 796; Butler, Guzerat ; 
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