RED SHOVELLER 151 



or more, alternately separating and closing, and 

 every time they close they slap each other on the 

 wing so smartly that the sound may be heard dis- 

 tinctly even when the birds are no longer visible. 

 While flying or swimming about they constantly 

 utter their far-sounding cry — ^three or four long, 

 clear, whistling notes, followed by another uttered 

 with great emphasis and concluding with a kind of 

 flourish. 



The nest is made amongst the rushes in the 

 marshes, and the eggs are pure white and eight or 

 nine in number. 



RED SHOVELLER 



Spatida plaiaka 



Above and beneath reddish, with rotind black spots; head and 

 neck lighter and spote smaller, lower back blackish, barred with 

 rufous, rump black; lesser coverts blue; middle coverts white; 

 secondaries bronzy black ; outer secondaries and scapulars with white 

 shaft-stripes ; crissum black ; tail brown, lateral rectrices edged with 

 white; bill dark, feet yellow; length 20 inches, wing 8 inches. 

 Female, above blackish brown, edged with rufous; lesser wing-coverts 

 bluish ; beneath bu% rufous, varied and spotted vrith blackish except 

 on the throat. 



There is but one Shoveller Duck in South America, 

 the present species, which is confined to the southern 

 part of the continent, from Paraguay to Patagonia, 

 and is familiar to sportsmen in the Plata as the Red 

 Duck, or Esp&tula. It is seldom met with in flocks 

 of more than twenty or thirty individuals, and a 



