86 
SHOVELLER. 
SHOVELLER— ANAS CLYPEATA Plate LXVIL Fig. 7. Male. 
Le Souchet, vi. p. 329. 6. pi. 32. fig. 1 Buff.xs.. 191. — PI. Enl. 971. 
— Arct. Zool. No. 485. Cateshy, i. pi. 96 ; female. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 509. — 
Peak's Museum, No. 2734. 
CLYPEATA.— LifiNmvs.* 
Anas platyrhynclias, Paii Synop. p. 144 Rynchaspis clypeata, Leach. — Shaw's 
Zool. — Steph. Cont. xii. 115. pi. 48. — Spatliulea clypeata, Flem. Brit. Anim, 
i. 123 Anas clypeata, Xaif/i. Jwc?. Ornith.u.'p. QbQ . — SLoveller, iHb/iL Ornith. 
Diet, and Sup. — Bew. ii. 345 Selby, m. and f. Illust. pi. 48. — Canard 
souchet. Tern. Man. ii. p. 842. — Anas clypeata, JBonap. 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 
* 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 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 j but when we examine the dilated 
and softly textured bill, and more particularly the fine laminse 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 he 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 laminae upon its edges, and long and remarkably deli- 
cate. 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 Hol- 
land, remarkable from the tooth-like membrane projecting from the angles of the 
bill, and differing somewhat from the others in its brown and dusky plumage. 
