296 NATATORES. SPATHULEA. 



Tail consisting of fourteen feathers, and slightly wedge- 

 shaped. 



Legs slender, short; feet of four toes, three before and 

 one behind, the front ones webbed, the hind toe small and 

 free. 



In this genus the laminated structure of the bill (which 

 prevails to a greater or less degree throughout the whole of 

 the Anatidce), acquires its highest development, and presents 

 the appearance, in both mandibles, of a fine pectinated or 

 ciliated appendage, accompanied with a great dilatation and 

 depression of the front part of the bill, which is spathulate 

 or spoon-shaped. It thus becomes an instrument beautifully 

 adapted for detecting and separating the food of the species 

 from the mud and water in which it is contained. The la- 

 mellae of the two mandibles, when brought nearly into con- 

 tact, aided by the fleshy papillous tongue, forming altogether 

 a perfect sieve or strainer, and enabling the bird to reject 

 through the interstices the adventitious matter, retaining only 

 what is fit for sustenance. From possessing this structure 

 (so essentially necessary to the habits of the family), in such 

 a superior degree, the present may Jbe considered as the 

 typical genus, not only of its particular group, but of the 

 whole of the Anatidce. Another characteristic it displays 

 (also prevalent in all the typical representatives of the greater 

 divisions), is the wide extent of its geographical distribution ; 

 the common species (Spath. clypeatd) being found in all the 

 quarters and in a variety of climates of the globe. These 

 birds are the inhabitants of lakes and marshy districts, pro- 

 curing their food, which principally consists of small worms, 

 insects, and larvae, by sifting the mud with their curiously 

 formed bill. Mr STEPHENS, in the twelfth volume of Shaw's 

 General Zoology, has introduced, amongst the Shovellers, 

 two species of Ducks which certainly do not appear to belong 

 to that genus, viz. Anas Rubida of Wilson's American Orni- 

 thology, and Anas Labrador a (Pied Duck) of the same 

 author, 



