482 SHOVELLER. 



of each mandible ; irides, bright orange ; tongue, large and 

 fleshy ; the inside of the upper and outside of the lower man- 

 dible are grooved, so as to receive distinctly the long, separated 

 reedlike teeth ; there is also a gibbosity in the two mandibles, 

 which do not meet at the sides, and this vacuity is occupied 

 by the sifters just mentioned; head and upper half of the 

 neck, glossy changeable green ; rest of the neck and breast, 

 white, passing round and nearly meeting above ; whole belly, 

 dark reddish chestnut ; flanks, a brownish yellow, pencilled 

 transversely with black, between which and the vent, which 

 is black, is a band of white ; back, blackish brown ; exterior 

 edges of the scapulars, white ; lesser wing-coverts and some 

 of the tertials, a fine light sky-blue ; beauty spot on the wing, 

 a changeable resplendent bronze green, bordered above by a 

 band of white, and below with another of velvety black ; rest 

 of the wing, dusky, some of the tertials streaked down their 

 middles with white ; tail, dusky, pointed, broadly edged with 

 white ; legs and feet, reddish orange, hind toe not finned. 



With the above another was shot, which differed in having 

 the breast spotted with dusky and the back with white ; the 

 green plumage of the head intermixed with gray, and the 

 belly with circular touches of white, evidently a young male 

 in its imperfect plumage. 



The female has the crown of a dusky brown ; rest of the 

 head and neck, yellowish white, thickly spotted with dark 

 brown ; these spots on the breast become larger, and crescent- 

 shaped ; back and scapulars, dark brown, edged and centred 

 with yellow ochre ; belly, slightly rufous, mixed with white ; 

 wing, nearly as in the male. 



On dissection, the labyrinth in the windpipe of the male 

 was found to be small ; the trachea itself seven inches long ; 

 the intestines nine feet nine inches in length, and about the 

 thickness of a crow-quill. 



