104 RUDDY DUCK. 



liver brown, finely pencilled with gray and reddish white ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts the same ground color, but the markings not so dis- 

 tinct ; wings light liver brown, the lesser coverts finely powdered with 

 gray ; on the back and scapulars, the flanks, and round the base of the 

 neck, the brownish red or bright mahogany colored plumage, which dis- 

 tinguishes the adult male, was coming out ; inner webs of the tail partly 

 dusky, outer -webs, for two-thirds of their length, and the tip, dirty fer- 

 ruginous ; legs blue ash in front, behind, the toes and webs, dusky. 

 When the tail is not spread, it is somewhat conical, and its narrow, 

 pointed feathers, are slightly guttered at their tips ; when spread, it is 

 wedge-shaped. The trachea is of nearly equal diameter throughout; 

 and has no labyrinth or enlargement at its lower part. 



Another young male, shot in October, measured fifteen and a quarter 

 inches in length, and twenty-three inches in breadth ; bill greenish 

 black, lower mandible yellowish flesh color, mixed with du.sky ; from 

 the bill to the hind-head a deep liver brown, the tips of the plumage 

 bronzed ; whole upper parts dark umber brown, pencilled with pale fer- 

 ruginous, bufl", and white ; from the corner of the mouth a brown mark- 

 ing extended towards the eye ; tail dusky, ash colored at its extremity ; 

 legs and feet dusky ash, toes paler, having a yellowish tinge, webs 

 dusky, claws sharp. 



The shafts of the tail feathers of all these specimens, except that 

 shot in April, projected beyond the webs ; in one specimen the shaft of 

 one of the middle feathers projected an inch, and was ramifled into rigid 

 bristles, resembling those of the tail of Buflbn's Sarcelle a queue epi- 

 neuse de Cayenne, PI. Enl. 967 ; in all the specimens there was the 

 appearance of the tail feathers having been furnished with the like pro- 

 cess, but which had been rubbed ofi". Can it be that this Duck makes 

 use of its tail in climbing up the fissures of rocks, or the hollows of 

 trees ? Its stifi", narrow feathers, not unlike those of the tail of a 

 Woodpecker, would favor this supposition. It is worthy of note that 

 the tail of Mr. Bonaparte's female specimen, alluded to above, is thus 

 rubbed. 



The plumage of the neck and breast, which Wilson says i-s of a 

 remarkable kind, that is, stiff" and bristly at the tips, is common to 

 several Ducks, and therefore is no peculiarity. 



The body of this species is broad, flat and compact ; its wings short 

 and concave ; its legs placed far behind; and its feet uncommonly large ; 

 it consequently is an expert diver. It flies with the swiftness, and in 

 the manner, of the Buff'el-head ; and it swims precisely as Latham 

 reports the Ural Duck to swim, with the tail immersed in the water as 

 far as the rump ; but whether it swims thus low with the view of employ- 

 ing its tail as a rudder, as Latham asserts of the Ural, or merely to 



