(1. Anas, Swains).

Head and neck glossy green; back brown; belly and abdomen brownish red; lesser wing-coverts pale blue.

A. clypeata, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. ii. p. 842. Shoveller, Mont, Orn. Diet, & Supp. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 345. Common Shoveller, Selb. Illust. vol. ii. p. 297. pl. 48*. (Trachea,) Linn. Trans, vol. iv. pl. 13. f. 4, & 5.

* Brit. Birds, vol. ix. pl. 212.

Dimensions

Entire length twenty inches: length of the bill (from the forehead) two inches eight lines, (from the gape) two inches eleven lines; of the tarsus one inch five lines; of the tail four inches; from the carpus to the end of the wing nine inches: breadth, wings extended, two feet six inches.

Description

(Male). Head, and upper half of the neck, deep green, with glossy reflections; lower part of the neck, breast, and scapulars, white; belly, abdomen, and flanks, brownish red: back, and primary quills, umber-brown: lesser wing-coverts pale blue; greater ones tipped with white, forming an oblique bar across the wings and an upper border to the speculum, which last is of a brilliant grass-green: rump, upper and under tail-coverts, brown, glossed with blackish green; sides of the rump white: tail brown, the feathers edged with white; the outer one wholly white: bill black: irides yellow: legs orange. (Female). Head pale reddish brown, with fine dusky streaks; rest of the upper parts dusky brown, the feathers edged with reddish white: under parts reddish, with large brown spots: lesser wing-coverts slightly glossed with pale blue: speculum not so bright as in the male. Obs. During the breeding season the male has a red breast, in which state it is the Red-breasted Shoveller of Pennant: after the expiration of that season, he partially assumes the female plumage, which is retained till the period of the autumnal moult. (Egg). White, tinged with green: long. diam. two inches two lines; trans, diam. one inch six lines.

Not a very abundant species, but met with occasionally during the winter months, principally in the eastern parts of the country. A few pairs are said to remain and breed in the marshes in Norfolk. Nest placed near the water's edge amongst aquatic herbage. Eggs twelve to fourteen in number. Food, worms and aquatic insects.

(2. Chauliodus, Swains).