Plate CCCXXVII. Male and Female.
Male with the bill longer than the head, depressed and much widened
towards the end, where its breadth is doubled; laminæ of the upper
mandible very numerous, prolonged beyond the edges and tapering to a
point, unless at the commencement of its broadest part; tail rounded,
of fourteen acute feathers; bill greyish-black; feet vermilion; head
and upper part of neck deep green with purple reflections; a
longitudinal band on the hind neck and the back, greyish-brown, the
feathers edged with paler; rump and upper tail-coverts greenish-black;
anterior scapulars white, posterior light blue on the outer web,
longitudinally banded with white and greenish-black on the inner;
smaller wing-coverts light blue; alula, primary coverts and quills
blackish-brown, their shafts white; outer secondaries greyish-brown,
eight of them externally of a rich duck-green, the inner
greenish-black, with a longitudinal white streak; secondary coverts
broadly tipped with white; tail-feathers greyish-brown, margined with
reddish-white; lower part of neck pure white; breast and middle part
of abdomen dull purplish-chestnut; a large patch of white on each side
of the rump, with a band of the same towards the tail; lower
tail-coverts greenish-black; axillaries and lower wing-coverts pure
white. Female with the bill much less dilated, and the laminæ less
elongated; the bill dull green; feathers of the upper parts
blackish-brown, edged with light reddish-brown; throat and sides of
the head light reddish-brown, which is the prevailing colour over the
lower part of the neck, part of the breast, and the sides, of which,
however, the feathers are edged with dusky, middle of breast whitish;
smaller wing-coverts dull brownish-grey; alula and primaries as in the
male; inner secondaries brownish-black, speculum as in the male but
paler, and changing to blue.
_Male_, 20-1/2, 31-1/2. _Female_, 17, 29-1/2.
Breeds abundantly in the Texas, westward to the Columbia, and Fur
Countries. During winter from the Middle Atlantic Districts to Texas.
Common.
Shoveller, Anas clypeata, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. viii. p. 45.
Anas clypeata, Bonap. Syn. p. 382.
Anas clypeata, Shoveller, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii.
p. 439.
Shoveller, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 383.
Shoveller Duck, Anas clypeata, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 241.