192 ORNAMENTAL WATERFOWL 
SOUTH AMERICAN OR SPOTTED SHOVELER. 
(Spatula platalea. Rhynchaspis maculatus ). 
This beautiful bird received its descriptive name Ahyz- 
chaspis maculatus from Gould on account of the characteristic 
black spots with which the entire plumage is adorned. Very 
little is known respecting this species, which is found, according 
to Azara, both in Paraguay and Buenos Ayres, as also in the 
Central Provinces of Chili, where it is fairly abundant. ‘ Darwin 
obtained his specimen of this Shoveler from the Rio de la Plata, 
whence also the one figured in Jardine and Selby’s ‘Illustrations 
of Ornithology’ was procured by Gould. A female of this 
species in Salvin and Godman’s collection was obtained in the 
Falklands by Leconte, when he went to obtain living sea-lions 
in 1867.” (Sclater and Salvin on Neotropical Anatidz, P.Z.S., 
1876). 
Eyton held a theory that this bird was the female of the 
New Holland or Australian Shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis), and 
that the specimens previously described as being the female 
and young of that bird were in reality young males (see his 
Synopsis of the Anatidze)—an opinion which has since been 
completely disproved. 
Male.—Ground colour of plumage  reddish-yellow, 
shading into brown upon the head; entire plumage thickly 
spotted with round black spots; under parts chestnut brown ; 
rump, tail-coverts, and scapulars glossy-black; chin white ; 
shoulders and smaller wing-coverts greyish-blue, terminating in 
a broad white band; wing-bar brilliant green; Dill very 
dark brown; feet yellow; eye yellow (Jardine and Selby, 
“ Tllustrations of Ornithology ”). 
Female.—No information. 
Young.—No information. 
Egg.—No information. 
