148 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



Some species have one or the other organ extremely developed or abnormally devel- 

 oped, as the common shovelers (Spatula) and the lobe-billed shovelers (Malacorhyn- 

 chus), which have the bill extremely expanded towards the extremity, and the lamella? 

 very long and thin, like a horny fringe around the tomia ; the latter, an Australian 

 species of peculiar coloration, light brownish gray with dark lunules, giving the plu- 

 mage a scaly appearance, and a small, glossy, pinkish spot behind the eye, has besides, 

 a soft membranaceous flap attached to each side of the anterior part of the bill. The 

 male mallard (Anas boschas) has some of the upper tail-coverts recurved in a peculiar 

 manner ; the mandarin-duck (Dendronessa galericulata), from Eastern Asia, has a ruff 

 on the side of the neck, and the inner tertial modified into an erect fan or sail-like 

 ornament; the pin-tail (Dafila acutd) and the 'old squaw' (Clangula hi/emails) have 



FIG. 71. Spatula clypeata, shoveler-duck. 



the middle tail-feathers extremely lengthened and pointed ; the scoters and surf-ducks 

 ( Oidemia) have a variously formed knob or tumor at base of the bill ; many forms 

 have shoulder-feathers and tertials greatly lengthened and pendant, etc. ; but all are 

 closely connected otherwise. The geographical distribution offers no peculiarities of 

 a general nature, except that the sea-ducks are more numerous in the boreal regions 

 than elsewhere. 



Some of the most tastefully and delicately colored birds are found among the 

 ducks, and some of the rarest colors in the class are here met with. We have already 

 mentioned the pink spot behind the eye of the lobe-billed shoveler. An Indian 

 species, Rhodonessa caryophyllacea, remarkable as a fresh-water-duck with the wind- 

 pipe of a sea-duck, is still more extraordinarily colored, both sexes having the head 

 and the back of the neck of a beautiful, pale, rosy pink, with a small tuft of still 



