88 WATER FOWL OF INDIA AND ASIA. 
such excellent examples of differing wing-markings, also 
furnish evidence which is rather unfavourable to this 
recognition-colour idea. In the first place, several of 
the Pochards agree in having the same wing-pattern, 
and the flight of these is certainly not quite the same. 
And secondly, the wing-bar is not a/ways constant in the 
same species in all its individuals ; the female Wigeon, 
as we have seen, seldom has one, and it is generally ab- 
sent in the female Pintail, though I knew at one time 
in India of no less than three female individuals of this 
species which acquired it, though without it at first. 
Also the female Garganey gets an approach to this mark- 
ing with advancing age; so that it would seem that 
these two species are now acquiring the marking, which 
is not yet fixed. But ifit were so important to the birds 
to know each other, the slower, weaker females would 
need to show their nationality more than the males, the 
more so as they are especially the members of the spe- 
cies which are so difficult to distinguish as to render a 
special recognition-mark necessary. In favour of con- 
sidering the marking as an ornament is the fact that it 
is In Some cases at any rate displayed in courtship, and 
this is, no doubt, the chief use of its presence. 
The Shoveller. 
Spatula clypeata, BLANFORD, Faun. Brit. Ind., 
Birds; Vol 1V, p. 452: 
VERNACULAR NAMES :—Tidari, Punana, Tokar- 
wala, Ghirah, H.; Pantamukhi, Beng. ; Dho- 
baha Sankhar (male), Khikeria Sankhayr (fe- 
male), Nepal; Alzpat, Sind. 
The Shoveller’s one point—it can hardly be said of 
beauty, but of generie distinction from other Dueks— 
isits very large and curiously formed bill. This is twice 
as long as the shank, and twice as broad near the tip 
