SHOVELER. 243 



free, without pendent lobe or membrane. Wings rather long, pointed. Tail 

 pointed, or wedge-shaped. The sexes differ in plumage. 



THE first division, or genus, of the true Ducks, as here 

 arranged, will contain the Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Bi- 

 maculated Duck, Wild Duck, Garganey, Teal, and the 

 Wigeons, all of which will be found to have the following- 

 characters in common. Externally they exhibit consider- 

 able length of neck ; the wings are also long, reaching 

 nearly to the end of the tail ; the tarsi somewhat round ; 

 the hind toe free, or having no pendent lobe. In habits 

 they may be stated generally as frequenting fresh-water, 

 but passing much of their time on land, feeding in ditches 

 and about the shallow margins of pools, on aquatic plants, 

 insects, worms, and occasionally on small fish, taking their 

 food at or near the surface ; possessing great powers of 

 flight, but seldom diving unless pursued. Of their internal 

 soft parts, the stomach is in the greatest degree muscular, 

 forming a true gizzard ; the intestines long ; the csecal 

 appendages from six to nine inches in length, in the larger 

 birds, and decreasing only in proportion to the size of the 

 species. Of the bones it may be observed, that the ribs 

 are short, the angle formed by the union of the last pair on 

 each side extending but little beyond the line of the pos- 

 terior edge of the sternum ; the keel of the breast-bone 

 deep, affording great extent of surface for the attachment 

 of large and powerful pectoral muscles ; the enlargement 

 at the bottom of the trachea, in all of them, is of bone 

 only. 



The males of the species of this division are further re- 

 markable for a particular change in the colours of some 

 parts of their plumage, by which they become, for a time 

 during summer, more or less like their females. This 

 alteration in appearance, produced by a partial production 



K2 



