106 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



chestnut collar around the neck. The female is brown. Both sexes 

 have the wing speculum gray, and a light band across the tip of the 

 bill, characters which distinguish them readily.] 



Subfamily Erismaturinae 



ERISMATURA JAMAICENSIS JAMAICENSIS (Gmelin) 

 WEST INDIAN RUDDY DUCK, PATICO DE FLORIDA, COUCOURAIME 



Anas jamaicensis Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 519 (Jamaica). 



Erismatura rubida, Tippenhatjeb, Die Insel Haiti, 1892, p. 323 (Haiti). 



Erismatura jamaicensis, Ciferri, Segund Inf. An. Est. Nac. Agr. Moca, 1927, 

 p. 6 (listed). 



Erismatura jamaicensis jamaicensis, Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadel- 

 phia, vol. 80, 1928, p. 492 (Trou Caiman). — Danfobth, Auk, 1929, p. 361 

 (Laguna del Salodillo, specimen). — Moltoni, Att. Soc. Ital. Scienz. Nat., vol. 

 68, 1929, p. 310 (Haina, specimen). 



Resident; local. 



Tippenhauer lists the ruddy duck from Haiti without definite lo- 

 cality or statement as to its occurrence. W. L. Abbott believes that 

 he saw it on the Laguna del Diablo, at the eastern end of the Samana 

 Peninsula, but was not entirely certain. 



Ciferri has listed a specimen in the collection of the Experiment 



Station at Moca, D. R., the first one actually known for the island, 



and sent a specimen collected near Haina April 10, 1926, to Moltoni. 



Danforth saw three males at the Laguna del Salodillo, near Copey, 



June 26, 1927, and collected one which he says agrees well in color 



and measurements with Porto Rican specimens. He measured it as 



follows : Wing 132.0, tail 77.5, culmen 42.5, tarsus 33.0 mm. Bond 



found the ruddy duck in 1928 in small numbers at the Trou Caiman, 



Haiti, and on January 15 secured a female which had been caught 



alive by a boy. This bird is in very worn plumage and is extremely 



dark in color, being blackish above mottled faintly with dull russet, 



the russet color predominating on the scapulars, and showing 



strongly on occasional feathers of the side of the neck. On the 



under surface it is dark hair brown. The wing is very small and 



apparently not fully developed, while the tail is so worn that the 



shafts of the feathers project as spines having only ragged bits of 



web, with the tips completely gone. The wing measures 109.6 mm., 



the culmen from base 40.7 mm. and the tarsus 30.7 mm. The length 



of wing is decidedly under that normal for the West Indian form, 



and it is apparently not entirely grown. Bond believed that he saw 



a male in full plumage with two females at the £tang Miragoane 



February 4, 1928. At the Trou Caiman natives informed him that 



the ruddy duck nested during the summer months. 



