480 SHOVELLER. 



SHOVELLER (Anas clypeata) 



PLATE LXVIL— Fig. 7, Male. 



Le Souchet, Briss. vi. p. 329, 6, pi. 32, fig. l.—Buff. ix. 191, PL enl. 971.— 

 Arct. Zool. No. 485.— Catesby, i. pi. 96, female. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 509. — 

 PeaWs Museum, No. 2734. 



ANAS CLYPEATA.— Linxmvs* 



Anas platyrhynchas, Rail Synop. p. 144. — Rynchaspis clypeata, Leach. — Shaw's 

 Zool. Steph. Cont. xii. 115, pi. 48. — Spathulea clypeata, Flem.. Brit. Anim. 

 i. 123. — Anas clypeata, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. p. 856. —Shoveller, Mont. 

 Ornith. Diet, and Sup. — Bern. ii. 345. — Selby, m. and f. Illust. pi. 48. — 

 Canard Souchet, Tern. Man. ii p. 842. — Anas clypeata, Bonap. Synop. p. 382. 

 — North. Zool. ii. p. 439. 



If we except the singularly formed and disproportionate size of 

 the bill, there are few ducks more beautiful or more elegantly 



* Mr Swainson, according to his views that the typical group should 

 hold the typical Dame of the family, has restricted Anas (in that sense) 

 to the shovellers. 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 developed. Thus, in 

 the ducks, he remarks there is nothing peculiar in diving, or living both 

 on land 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 lamina? 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 something 

 equally peculiar in their economy. We shall thus be warranted in 

 taking the bill as our criterion, and those birds where we find its 

 structure most fully developed for the type. These are most decidedly 

 to be seen in the shovellers, a group containing, as yet, only three or 

 four known species ; in them we have the utmost dilatation of the bill 

 towards its apex, and the lamina? upon its edges, and long and remark- 

 ably delicate. The bird itself possesses a powerful flight, and is a most 

 expert diver and swimmer, but seems to prefer inland lakes or fens to the 

 more open seas and rivers. 



To this group will belong the curious pink-eared shoveller from New 

 Holland, remarkable from the toothlike membrane projecting from 

 the angles of the bill, and differing somewhat from the others in its 

 brown and dusky plumage. Mr Swainson has formed on account of 



