AVBS ANATID/E. 481 



Bill : Black, shaded with dark green. 



Feet: Orange-yellow. 



Iris : White in the breeding season ; hazel-brown at other times. 



Adult Female: Head streaked with buffy and black; the neck similar, 

 but the throat and chin immaculate buffy white ; the back brownish, each 

 feather with margins and markings of buffy white ; wings much as in the 

 male, except that the blue is duller and the general gloss of green on the 

 secondaries is not so fine ; the under parts are dull buff, with a reddish 

 tinge marked with dull brown streaks. Bill greenish olive-brown. Feet 

 dull orange. Iris, hazel-brown. 



Young males of the year resemble the females, but the wings are brighter, 

 the bill is dull reddish brown and the legs and feet pale pinkish or pinkish 

 brown. 



The bill of the female of Spatula platalea is a little shorter than that of 

 S. clypeata and is darker colored in dried skins, with no yellowish or 

 orange shadings, such as are apparent in clypeata under like conditions. 

 Otherwise the two birds are much alike and difficult to distinguish from 

 one another ; but as the two species do not appear to overlap at any point, 

 the locality where birds occur or are taken should be a determining factor 

 in characterizing them. 



Geographical Range. South America from Uruguay and southern 

 Peru southward to the Straits of Magellan ; Patagonia and the Falkland 

 Islands. 



This duck was procured by Mr. Colburn on the trip made to Patagonia 

 in 1898, when he brought specimens from the Rio Coy, in the south- 

 eastern part of the province and not far from the coast, late in January. 

 That the breeding season was past is evident from the plumage, which is 

 worn and had not been renewed. Eggs in the British Museum collec- 

 tions have been taken in central Chili in early November and in northern 

 Argentina in the same month. Mr. Barrows met the birds on the pampas 

 of northern Argentina in the winter only and says "it was by far the 

 most numerous of the Ducks, being often seen in flocks of one or two hun- 

 dred." Mr. James gives it however as a common resident at Estancia 

 Espartilla and it seems probable from the available data that it is resident 

 except in the extremes of its range, referring to the birds in the vicinity 

 of the Straits of Magellan and the representatives occurring in the Falk- 

 lands. 



