SPATULA CLTPEATA. 1091 



the West Indies it is, according to Gundlach, a regular winter visitant to Cuba, and in Jamaica it is said to 

 he numerous. 



Habits. — This remarkable Duck, which is peculiar in being the only widely-distributed species of the 

 little group to which it belongs, is almost entirely a frequenter of fresh water, affecting the margins of ponds, 

 lakes, marshy rivers, and jheels, where it feeds in shallow places among weeds and vegetable matter. It 

 searches for its food chiefly in mud, and subsists to a great extent on worms and aquatic insects, which its 

 peculiar comb-like lamellre enable it to sift out of the earthy matter in which they are found. Its flesh is 

 said by most writers to be very inferior eating ; but, notwithstanding, it is frequently shot, as it is not at all 

 shy, and its handsome plumage presents a bait to the sportsman. The Shoveller, although it collects in great 

 numbers in one locality when suitable feeding-grounds attract it, usually goes in small parties, which keep a 

 little apart from one another, and often mix with a few individuals of other species ; Jerdon, for instance, 

 notices that it is often to be seen with the Gadwall, which is very abundant in India. 



Nidification. — The Shoveller breeds in May and June, the regions nearest India to which it resorts to 

 for this purpose being Turkestan and Mongolia, in which latter Prjevalsky found it nesting in the Hoang-ho 

 valley. In Europe it lays in the most secluded parts of marshes and swamps, making a nest of flags, rushes, 

 reeds, sedges, &c. on a dry spot, and lining it with feathers and down. The eggs vary in number from eight 

 to twelve ; they are very pale stone- or grey-green, rather long ovals slightly compressed at one end, smooth 

 in texture, with a slight gloss. The dimensions of three examples in a small series from the Petchora are 

 2-18 by 1-48, 2"19 by L54, 2-14 by P4 inches respectively. 



The "nest-down" is small, dark brown, with small plainly-defined whitish centres, without pale tips. 



Note. — I have sportsman's authority for the occurrence of the Mallard {A. boschas, Linn.) in the Jaffna 

 district ; but I am inclined to think that the Indian Wild Duck has been mistaken for it. 



ANSEEES. 

 Fam. PHCENICOPTERID^:*. 



Bill very large, high at the base, suddenly bent down about the centre, with a corresponding 

 angle in the commissure. Legs very long. 



Not of natatorial habit. Sternum with a single deep notch in each half of the posterior 

 edge. Loral space bare. 



* The Flamingoes are placed by some systematists among the Herodiones (Herons, Ibises, &c), with which isolated 

 group they have nothing in common, except length of leg and a partial resemblance in their mode of feeding. They 

 constitute a specialized and somewhat aberrant Anserine form ; their young, which are autophagous, their eggs, and their 

 nidification (though somewhat peculiar) are those of this order : in the lamellae of the bill and the fleshy tongue they 

 possess the great characteristics of the Anseres ; the sternum is Anserine, and, finally, the body is set horizontally on the 

 legs like that of a Goose, and not held upright as in the Herons. 



7a 



