SHOVELLER 215 



Shoveller 



Spatula clypeata 

 (spat-u-la, klip-e-a-ta) 



Colour Plates Nos. 15 and 17. Downy Young No. 33. 



SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Spatula, Latin, meaning a spoon; clypeata, Latin, meaning a shield; both words 

 referring to the shape of the bill. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Spoonbill; spoonbill duck; often shortened to spoony. IN LOCAL 

 USE: Broadbill; broad-faced mallard; broady; cowan; cow-frog; featherbed; French 

 teal; Jew duck; laughing mallard; loffel-ente (spoon-duck); mesquin (micoine and 

 mecoine are corruptions of mesquin); mud duck; mud-lark, mud-shoveler; mule 

 duck; salt-water mallard, scooper; shovelbill; shovelmouth; shovelnose; soup-lips; 

 spoon-billed teal; spoon-billed widgeon. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE: WINTER PLUMAGE: Head and neck, iridescent green, with blue 

 reflections; throat and crown, and area around bill, dull brownish black; bill (fig. 43) 

 black, lower mandible paler, spoon-shaped, much longer than head; width near 

 tip about twice as wide as at base, average length 2y 4 ", width at base 5/ s " widening 

 to about li^" near tip; lamellae conspicuously developed, long and bristle-like; 

 eye, bright yellow. Body. Chest and foreback, white, chest sometimes stained rusty 

 or slightly spotted; broken brownish-black streak dividing white on lower hindneck; 

 back, slaty brown, with lighter feather-edgings; scapulars, mainly white, the longer 

 ones, some with outer webs, greenish black, others, cobalt blue; rump, black, glossed 

 with green; breast, rich chestnut, occasionally mottled with whitish; sides, paler 

 reddish buff, finely vermiculated with black; belly, paler chestnut; broad patch of 

 pure white on flank at base of tail, sometimes vermiculated with black; feet, orange 

 red to vermillion. Tail. Central feathers dusky brown, with pale edgings, outer 

 feathers becoming whiter; upper coverts, black, glossed with green; under coverts, 

 shorter ones, bordering white flank-patch, whitish or buffy, finely barred with black, 

 longer central feathers, brownish black, with green gloss, lighter brown at tips. 

 Wings. Lesser and middle coverts, cobalt blue; greater coverts, greyish, with broad 

 white tips; primaries, dusky; secondaries, with speculum of bright metallic green, 

 borders in front with white bar, and behind, sometimes narrowly, with white; tertiak, 

 greenish black, streaked with white; lining, white, with some dusky feathers; axillars, 

 white. 



ECLIPSE PLUMAGE: The moult into the eclipse starts in June and is very rapid. 

 In this plumage the male closely resembles the female, except for the breast, 

 which remains largely chestnut, but is paler than in the winter male, and resembles 

 the breast of the young male; the wings do not change the male pattern. The bill 

 during eclipse becomes yellowish brown. 



AUTUMN PLUMAGE: The moult out of the eclipse plumage, in which the male 

 closely resembles the female, is very protracted, and in early autumn most males 

 are still found in this eclipse plumage. The wing is as in winter plumage. The 

 autumn moult usually commences about the middle of October, when the bill 



