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 Anatide), 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- 
mellze 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 be considered as the 
typical genus, not only of its particular group, but of the 
whole of the Anatide. 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. clypeata) 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 larvee, by sifting the mud with their curiously 
formed bill. Mr Sreruens, 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 Labradora (Pied Duck) of the same 
author, 
