67 
SHOVELLER. 
CLYPEJJTA. 
[Plate LXVIL— Fig. 7, Male.'] 
Gmel. Itp» 518 , JVo, 19 ; A, Mexicam^ Id. p. 519, Ab. 81 ; A. rubenSi Id. No. 82 . — 
Lath. Ind, Om. p. 856, No, 60 ; p. 857, Ab. 61, Ab. 62. Gen. Syn. Ill, p. 509, Ab. 55 ; 
p. 511, No. 56; p. 512, No. 57. — Blue-wing Shoveller., Catesby, I, pi. 9Q, female . — 
Arct. Zool No. Zool. No. 280, Ab. 281.— Z-e Souchet, Briss. VI, p. 329,/;/. 
32, fig. 1 ; Le Souchet du Mexique, Id. p. 337 ; Le Canard Sauvage du Mexique, Id. p. 
327, Ab. 5.— ie Souchet ou le Rouge, Buff. IX, p. 191. PI. Enl. 971 ; female, 972.— 
Canard Souchet, Temm. Man. d^Orn. p, 842— Bewick, U, p. 310, 313.— Ze Souchet 
commun, Cuv. R^g. An. l,p. 536.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2734 ; female, 2735. 
IF we except the singularly formed bill, and its disproportion- 
ate size, there are few Ducks more beautiful, or more elegantly- 
marked than this. The excellence of its flesh, which is uniformly 
juicy, tender, and well tasted, is another recommendation to which 
it is equally entitled. It occasionally visits the seacoast ; but is 
more commonly found on our lakes and rivers, particularly along 
their muddy shores, where it spends great part of its time in 
searching for small worms, and the larvae of insects, sifting the 
watery mud through the long and finely set teeth of its curious 
bill, which is large and admirably constructed for the purpose of 
reeeiving a considerable quantity of matter, each mandible boi del- 
ed with elose-set, pectinated rows, exactly resembling those of a 
weaver’s reed, which fitting into each other form a kind of sieve, 
capable of retaining very minute worms, seeds, or insects, which 
constitute the principal food of the bird. 
The Shoveller visits us only in the winter, and is not known 
to breed in any part of the United States. It is a common bird 
of Europe, and, according to M. Baillon, the correspondent of Buf- 
fon, breeds yearly in the marshes in France. The female is said 
