SHOVELLER. 577 
(eins glaucion) is nothing more than the young male of the Golden 
ye. 
The conformation of the trachea, or windpipe, of the male of this 
species, is singular: Nearly about its middle it swells out to at least 
five times its common diameter, the concentric hoops or rings, of which 
this part is formed, falling obliquely into one another when the wind- 
pipe is relaxed; but when stretched, this part swells out to its full 
size, the rings being then drawn apart; this expansion extends for 
about three inches; three more below this, it again forms itself into a 
hard, cartilaginous shell, of an irregular figure, and nearly as large as 
a walnut; from the bottom of this labyrinth, as it has been called, the 
trachea branches off to the two lobes of the lungs; that branch which 
.goes to the left lobe being three times the diameter of the right. The 
female has nothing of allthis. The intestines measure five feet in 
length, and are large and thick. : 
I have examined many individuals of this species, of both sexes and 
in various stages of color, and can therefore affirm, with certainty, that 
the foregoing descriptions are correct. Europeans have differed greatly 
in their accounts of this bird, from finding males in the same garb as 
the females, and other full-plumaged males destitute of the spot of 
white on,the cheek; but all these individuals bear such evident marks 
of belonging to one peculiar species, that no judicious naturalist, with 
all these varieties before him, can long hesitate to. pronounce them the 
same. 
— es 
SHOVELLER.— ANAS CLYPEATA.— Fic. 274.— Matz. 
Le Souchet, Briss. vi. p. 329, 6, pl. 52, fig. 1.— Buff. ix. 191.— Pl. enl. 971. 
— Arct. Zool. No. 485. — Catesby, i. pl. 963 female. — Lath. Syn. .iii. p. 509. — 
Peale’s Museum, No. 2734. ; 
ANAS CLYPEATA.— Linnzvs.* 
Anas platyrhynchas, Rati Synop. p. 144. — Rynchaspis clypeata, Leach. — Shaw’s 
Zool. — Steph. Cont. xii. 115, pl. 48.—Spathulea clypeata, lem. Brit. Anim. 
i. 123. — Anas clypeata, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. p. 856.— Shoveller, Mont. Ornith. 
Dict. and Sup. — Bew. ii. 345.— Selby, m. and f. Illust. pl. 48.— Canard 
souchet, Tem. Man. ii. p. 842. — Anas clypeata, Bonap. Synop. p. 382. — North. 
~ Zool. ii. p. 439. 
Ir we except the singularly-formed and disproportionate size of the 
bill, there are few Ducks more beautiful or more elegantly marked 
* Mr. Swainson, according to his views that the typical group should hold the 
typical name of the family, has restricted Anas (in that sense) to the Shoyellers. 
In fixing upon the typical representation of any large family, that gentleman goes 
upon the principle of taking the organ most peculiarly important to the whole, and 
selects that subordinate, or rather primary group, wherein that organ is most fully 
develdped. Thus, in the Ducks, he remarks there is nothing peculiar in diving, or 
living, both on Jand and water, or endowments for rapid flight, for many others 
possess like powers ; but when we examine the dilated and softly-textured bill, and 
more particularly the fine lamine on the edges, we are struck with a formation at 
variance with our accustomed ideas of that member, and at once think that it must 
be applied to sie equally peculiar in their economy. We shall thus be war- 
SSS 
