RUDDY SHELD-DUCK. 



351 



towards the bottom of the neck a ring of black, which is 

 absent from autumn to spring ; the back, breast, and all the 

 under surface of the body, the same rich orange-brown ; the 

 point of the wing, and the wing-coverts, pale buffy-white ; 

 wing-primaries lead-grey, almost black; secondaries rather 

 lighter in colour, the outer webs, short of the end, forming 

 a brilliant bronze-green speculum ; rump and tail-feathers 

 lead-colour ; legs, toes, and their membranes, blackish. The 

 whole length is twenty-five or twenty- six inches; wing, from 

 the carpal joint to the tip, about fourteen and a half inches. 



The female is rather smaller ; has a whitish forehead, 

 and no black collar ; this latter ornament being also absent 

 in the young male. The young of the year are like the 

 female, but rather duller in colour ; the inner secondaries 

 and scapulars are brown, marked with rufous ; and the wing- 

 coverts are greyish-white. 



A nestling from the Volga, in the collection of Mr. E. 

 Bidwell, is dull white on the forehead, cheeks, and entire 

 under-parts ; the crown of the head to the eye, nape, and 

 back, brown, with broad streaks of white on the inner side 

 of each pinion, and on each side of the centre of the rump. 



