THE SHOVELLER. 145 
The shell is very fine and compact. The colour a pale 
delicate greenish stone colour, sometimes greyer, sometimes 
with a creamy shade. 
In size a large series varies from 2°0 to 2'2 in length ; and 
from 1°33 to 1°58 in breadth. 
THE MALES, except just after the breeding season, are very 
differently and far more brilliantly plumaged than the females, 
and they are also considerably larger and heavier. Those I 
have measured varied as follows :— 
Males —Length, 19°77 to 21°75; expanse, 29°75 to 32°5; 
Wine O.£6-0°5 > tall from vent, 30. to) 4:0); ‘tarsus, 1:2 fo 175 ; 
bill from gape, 2°95 to 3°05 ; weight, 1 Ib. 3 ozs. to I fb. 14 ozs. 
Females—Length, 18'0 to 190 ; expanse, 27°0 to 29°5; wing, 
Bone oq tail’ from vent, 3°5 to 3°35; tarsus, 1:2 to 1°4 ; bill 
from gape, 2°65 to 2°87; weight, 1tb. to 1ib 7 ozs. 
In the male, in winter, the bill is black, usually with a greyish 
shade ; in some it may be called leaden dusky. In November, 
when they first arrive, ( before they have quite recovered from 
the temporary eclipse they, like somany Drakes, undergo imme- 
diately after the breeding season), and in the case of birds of 
the year until much later, the bills of the male are like those 
of the females. 
In the female, the upper mandible is dark brown, tinged 
reddish along the commissure and on the nail, while the lower 
mandible is dull orange, brownish towards the tip. 
The irides vary, as a rule, in the male from yellow to reddish 
orange, in the female from brown to reddish brown; but I have 
recorded them as brown in two or three males, and as bright 
yellow in one female, so that there is only a general, and not a 
constant, sexual difference in the colour. 
The legs and feet vary from orange to Indian or tile red, and 
are usually brighter coloured in both sexes in the spring, and 
at the same season, in the male than inthe female. The webs 
are often dusky towards their margins. 
DHEPE CATE isa very cood one, But the leos and feet are 
always more tinged with red than the artist has depicted. 
THE GENUS, a very well marked one, is represented almost 
throughout the Globe; South America (S. platalea), South 
Africa (S. capensis), Australia and Tasmania (S. rhynchotis), 
and New Zealand (S. variegata), each possess a_ species 
peculiar to themselves. 
Cs? 
