SPATULA. 453 



Like other allied forms, the drake of the present species dons 

 the female dress, except on the wings, after the breeding- season, 

 and resumes the male garb at the autumnal moult. But it is rare 

 in India, so far as my experience goes, to see a male in full 

 plumage before the end of February : either the green head or 

 the white breast, or both, are not completely assumed. Male birds- 

 of the year in this and other species of Duck do not assume the 

 full plumage till the spring. 



Female. Brown above, each feather with a pale reddish border ; 

 the feathers of the back and rump, the scapulars and upper tail- 

 coverts with concentric buff or rufous bands : wing-coverts grey 

 to greyish brown ; speculum on secondaries duller than in male ; 

 lower parts brownish buff, more rufous on abdomen, speckled with 

 dark brown on fore neck ; feathers of upper breast and of flanks 

 distinctly, lower abdomen and lower tail-coverts less strongly, 

 marked with crescentic brown bars. 



Bill in males in full plumage black ; in females and young, upper 

 mandible dark brown, lower mandible dull orange ; irides yellow 

 or orange in the male, brown in the female ; legs orange to red 

 (Hume). 



Length of male 20 ; tail 3-25 ; wing 9'5 ; tarsus 1/4 ; bill from 

 gape 3. Females are a little smaller : wing 8-75 ; the bill is- 

 shorter, measuring from gape 2*75. 



Distribution. Throughout the greater part of the Northern 

 hemisphere, between lat. 10 and lat. 68 N., breeding in the- 

 north temperate zone. A winter visitor to India, Ceylon, and 

 Northern Burma, arriving in the latter end of October and staying 

 till late in April, after most of the other migratory Ducks have 

 left. It is common throughout Northern India, but rarer to the 

 southward and in Ceylon ; it is found in Assam, Manipur, and 

 the Upper Irrawaddy Valley above Myingyan ; but noc, so far 

 as is hitherto known, in Pegu or Tenasserim. Gates recently 

 obtained a specimen in the Shan States. Layard came across 

 young birds in Ceylon, but this must have been exceptional, no 

 other instance of the Shoveller's breeding within Indian limits 

 being known. 



Habits, $*c. In India the Shoveller is a freshwater bird, and 

 is generally found in small parties, in pairs or singly, haunting 

 shallow water on the edges of tanks and marshes, and sometimes 

 rivers, and often in little ponds of dirty water about villages,, 

 where it becomes very tame. It is almost omnivorous, but feeds 

 principally on insects and their larvae, worms, molluscs, and on 

 various organic substances that are found on the borders of swamps 

 and ponds, and which its fine lamellae enable it to sift out from the 

 mud. The Shoveller has also the peculiarity, described by Newton, 

 of swimming in circles with irs bill in the water above the spot 

 where Pochards are diving and feeding beneath, and sifting out 

 the substances that float up w T hen disturbed by the operations of 

 the Diving Ducks. It appears never to feed like other ducks,, 

 with its head and breast immersed and its tail sticking up 



