SHOVELLER DUCK. 243 
of eight or nine of these ducks, probably members of a single family, and 
cautiously approaching them, while they were busily engaged in search- 
ing for food with their heads and necks immersed, I have obtained 
several of them at the first shot, and as the survivors flew off have suc- 
ceeded in procuring one or two more. On such occasions, they rise al- 
most perpendicularly to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and then 
fly off in a direct course, in the manner of Mallards. 
Awas cLtypeEata, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol.i. p. 200.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 856-— 
Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 382. 
SHovELteR, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 45, pl. 67, fig. 7. 
Anas CLYPEATA, SHOVELLER, Richards. and Swains. Faun. Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. 
p. 439. 
SHovELteER, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 439. 
Adult Male. Plate CCCX XVII. Fig. 1. 
Bill longer than the head, higher than broad at the base, depressed 
and much widened towards the end, where its breadth is doubled 
Upper mandible with the dorsal line sloping and very slightly con 
cave, the ridge at the base broad, narrowed over the nostrils; sides 
nearly erect at the base, gradually more declinate and convex; the 
tip very broadly rounded, with the unguis oblong, rather small, curved 
and rounded at the extremity; the margins soft, with very nume- 
rous lamellae, which are prolonged beyond the edges and taper to a 
point, unless at the commencement of the broadest part of the bill. 
Nasal groove elliptical, and filled by the soft membrane of the bill; 
nostrils elliptical, pervious, placed near the ridge. Lower mandible 
slightly curved upwards, with the angle very long and narrow, the 
unguis obovate. 
Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed, rounded above; neck 
moderate ; body rather full, slightly depressed. Feet short, stout, 
placed a little behind the centre of the body; legs bare a little above 
the joint; tarsus very short, moderately compressed, anteriorly with 
small scutella, and an external short series of larger, on the other 
parts reticulated with small scales. Hind toe very small, with a nar- 
row free membrane ; third toe longest, fourth almost as long ; the three 
anterior slender, with numerous oblique scutella, and connected by 
webs which have the margin concave and denticulate ; the inner 
