124 ANSERIFORMES chap. 



occurring in the Canaries, is greyish above, with brown and buff 

 marblings, and whitish below with brown bars. It flies low, utters 

 a croaking whistle, and lays ten or eleven buff eggs in isolated 

 tussocks. Both sexes of Malacorhynchus memhranaceus, the Pink- 

 eyed Duck of Australia and Tasmania (p. Ill), are grey-brown with 

 lighter dots, and some white on the face, wing, and tail ; the under 

 parts are whiter with brown bands, while behind each blackish eye- 

 patch is a pink mark, situated below a dark line running to the 

 occiput and down the nape. The bill is greenish, and the feet are 

 emerald-coloured or yellowish. This species is a fearless denizen of 

 still waters, with a habit of laying its six rich buff eggs in old 

 Herons' nests, in holes in trees, or on flat branches. 



Spatula clypeata, the Shoveller, which now breeds in many 

 parts of Britain, extends from about the Arctic Circle to North 

 Africa, Central Asia, and the United States, wintering southward 

 to Casamance, Somaliland, Ceylon, Borneo, China, Japan, Colombia, 

 and the West Indies, and visiting the Hawaiian islands, the Gil- 

 bert Group, and Australia. It is dark brown, relieved by a green 

 head, white neck, chestnut breast and belly ; the longer scapulars 

 being black with white median stripes, the wing-coverts pale 

 blue, the speculum green with white anterior border, the bill 

 plumbeous, the feet orange. The female is red -brown with 

 duller wings, while the bill of the young shows the spoon-shaped 

 form in about three weeks. S. rhyncliotis, of Southern Australia, 

 Tasmania, and the Xew Zealand area, has a dark brown crown, and 

 blue-grey neck, with a white lateral line, the chest being whitish 

 and the lower parts chestnut, both with black bands ; S. plataleay 

 ranging from Peru and Paraguay to Patagonia and the Palklands, 

 is reddish wuth round black spots, having a black crown and 

 rump ; whereas S. capensis, of South Africa, has a grey-brown head 

 and neck, and brown mantle and under parts with darker mottlings. 

 The wings and scapulars are similar in all the above, except in >S'. 

 capemsis, where the latter are dark blue-green. The females hardly 

 differ from each other, but that of S. rhyncJiotis is darker, that of 

 S. platalea has a shorter bill, while in both sexes of S. capensis the 

 speculum has a blue tinge. Shovellers are somewhat silent birds 

 with a peculiar habit of swimming and feeding in circles over spots 

 where Diving Ducks are submerged ^ ; the diet includes herbage, 

 worms, molluscs, crustaceans, and insects ; the eggs are pale green. 



1 A. Newton, Did. Birds, 1896, pp. 841-842. 



