ANATID.E — FULiGULIN.E: SEA DUCKS. 



945 



patches, lural and auricular; no frontal or nuchal white. A bird in this non-committal plu- 

 mage, but with the whitish on side of head gathered into two definite patches, is most likely 

 a young $, as shown in the figure. Length 18.(10-21.00; e.xtent 31.00-3(».00; wing 9.00- 

 10.00; tarsus 1.67; middle toe and claw 3.25; bill 2.25-2.50 along gape. 9 fairlv smaller 

 than (J, at or below minima and 

 averages here given. North 

 America at large, chiefly coast- 

 wise, but also on large interior 

 waters; U. S. in winter, abundant 

 in more northerly portions, not 

 rare even to Florida and Lower 

 California ; Jamaica ; casual in 

 Europe (for numerous British 

 cases, see Seebohm, Hist, vi, 1885, 

 p. 607; a late case is Hjellefjord, 

 Norway, Sept. 23, 1893). Breeds from Labrador, British Columbia and Sitka to Arctic coast, 

 Alaskan coast of Bering Sea and Aleutian islands. Eggs 5-8 or 9, 2.25-2.50 X 1-60-1.75, 

 pale bufT, more grayish or creamy in different instances, laid in June and July. (X. B. In 

 upper fig. 663 tlie first re-entrance indicates extent of feathering under the bill, the ne.xt the 

 mandibular rami.) 



Obs. — IT. p. Iroubridijii, queried as " scarcely tenable " in former editions of the Key, has been abandoned by 

 common consent. 



ERISMATU'RA. (Gr. tpeiafia, ereisma, a stay, prop, pier, and ovpd, oiira, tail, as the stiff- 

 ened member might seem to be.) Rudder Ducks. Remarkably distinguished from our 

 other Fulignlina' exce{)ting Nomonyx by the stiffened, linear-lancecdate tail-feathers, normally 

 18 in unmbor, exposed to base by reason of e.\treme shortness of coverts, their shafts enlarged, 

 channelled underneath; appearance of tail strikinu;ly like that of a Cormorant. Bill about as 



Fio. CG4. — Surf Duck, reduced. (From Elliot 



(a^ 



Tia. f.fi.5. — Ruddy Duck. (L. .\. Fn.Tto8.) 



long as head, scarcfly higher than broad at ha.>ie, widcnrd and drprc^iscd at i-nd, which is almost 

 turned up; its sjuxin-shape suggesting that of the Shoveller, though the widening is not so 

 great. Nail as viewed from above very small, narrow, and linear, greatly expanding on a do- 

 cnrved part bent und«'r einl of bill (uiii(pn). Ile.id small, and neck thick ; you can easily ilraw 

 the skin of the Ruddy Duck over the heati, which is impracticable with mo.st Ducks. Tarsus 

 short ; toes very long, the outer longer than midille, the latter with claw twice as long as tarsus. 



60 



