2i 1 2 FLAMINGOES, DUCKS, AND SCREAMERS 



dypeata), which in the British Isles is mainly a winter visitor, and is spread over 

 the entire Northern Hemisphere. In the male the head and neck are dark metal- 

 lic green, the breast and lower part of the neck white, the abdomen and sides chest- 

 nut, the wing speculum green with a white border in front, the back and inner 

 scapular dusky brown, and the outer scapulars white, the beak being lead color, and 

 the legs and feet reddish orange, with black nails. The female lacks the brilliant 

 coloration of her lord, having most of the feathers mottled with two shades of 

 brown, the back and scapulars being nearly uniform dusky, and the beak brown, 

 with its lower mandible orange. In length, the male reaches about twenty inches. 

 The genus is represented by a second species (S. platalea) in South America, by a 

 third (S. capensis) in Africa, and by two others in Australia. Nesting in large 

 numbers near or within the Arctic Circle, and more sparingly in lower latitudes, 

 the common shoveller commences to arrive in the British Isles during September, 

 where it sojourns till the following May or April. In the New World it breeds 

 from Alaska to Texas, and winters as far south as Guatemala, while it spreads in 

 numbers over the plains of India during the cold season. Writing of its habits, 

 Mr. Hume remarks that the shoveller is very tame, and in some districts may be 

 met with "on every trumpery little village pond, half surrounded by huts, the 

 resort of the washermen, and of the entire population for the purposes of ablution, 

 and of the village herds, driven thither twice a day for water. Filthy is quite an 

 inadequate expression for many of these reeking sinks of pollution, but foul or fair 

 the shoveller is equally at home in them, and may be seen at all hours feeding along 

 the edge, now just in and now just out of the water, making no epicurean selection, 

 but feeding on pretty well every organic substance that comes to hand, nice or 

 nasty." In Britain, on the other hand, it is a shy and wary bird, frequenting 

 lakes, ponds, and sluggish rivers. The nest, usually situated on dry ground be- 

 neath a tussock of grass, is made of dry grass; the eggs, which are covered up with 

 down plucked by the female from her own breast, vary in number from eight to 

 fourteen, and are greenish buff in color. 



The elongation of the middle pair of tail feathers in the male give 

 Ducks * ^ e a ^ most cosmopolitan pintail duck (Dafila acuta) its distinctive 

 title, and at the same time afford one of the most striking character- 

 istics of the genus of which this bird is the typical representative. In both sexes of 

 the pintail the neck is unusually long and slender, while the beak is about equal in 

 length to the head, with its edges nearly parallel, although expanding slightly 

 toward the tip, and with the lamellae but very little exposed. The wings are long 

 and pointed, with the first and second quills the longest; and the tail is likewise 

 sharply pointed in both sexes, the male bird not only having its two central 

 feathers elongated and pointed, but also showing an equally marked lengthening 

 of the lanceolate scapular feathers. The legs are rather short, and the webs are 

 slightly excavated in front. The pintail resembles the mallard in the circumstance 

 that during the summer the male assumes a plumage resembling that of the female. 

 At other times the former sex has the head and upper neck dark brown; most 

 of the upper parts gray, forming by undulating lines of grayish and blackish; 

 the front of the neck, breast, and considerable portion of the under parts, white; 



