22 PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 

 ON A DUCK NEW TO THE NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



By ROBERT RIDC^WAY. 



About nine years since (February 2, 1872), Mr. George A. Boardman, of 

 Calais, Maine, sent to the Smithsonian Institution a mounted specimen of 

 a duck obtained in Fulton Market, New York City, and supposed to have 

 been shot on Long Island Sound, which he was unable to determine sat- 

 isfactorily, but which he supposed to be a hybrid between the Eed- 

 he4d {JEthyia americana) aiwl some other species. The specimen was in 

 Immature plumage, with the feathers of the first livery much worn, 

 while those of the new moult, which were generally interspersed, indi- 

 cated a very different garb when the moult should have been completed. 

 At the time the specimen was received at the Smithsonian, I (also sup- 

 posing it to be a hybrid) made comparisons with nearly, if not quite, all 

 the American sjiecies of ducks, but was unable to get the slightest clue 

 to its parentage. It was then put back in the case and not again thought 

 of until a few days ago, when in removing the specimens with a view to 

 their rearrangement I happened to take the one in question in one hand 

 and an adult female of the European Eufous-crested Duck {Fuligula ru- 

 fina) in the other; and having the two thus in a very favorable position 

 for comparison, I at once perceived a striking similarity in general 

 appearance and in the form of the bill, which induced me to extend the 

 examination to an adult male, the result being that no question remained 

 of the bird in question being an immature male of F. rufina, a species 

 hitherto not detected in North America. I have written to Mr. Boardman 

 requesting full particulars as to circumstances and date of capture, but 

 have been unable to elicit any further particulars than those given above. 



As the species has never been described in any work on North Amer- 

 ican birds, I give below a description of the three stages represented in 

 the collection of the United States National Museum, as well as of the 

 downy young, the latter quoted from Dresser's "Birds of Europe"; 

 also, the principal synonyms and references, compiled from the leading 

 European authorities. 



Genus FULIGULA, Stephens.* 



"Branta," Boie, Isis, 1822, 564 (type Anas rufina, Pall.); not of Scopoli, 1769, 



Fuligula, Steppiens, Gen. Zocil. xii. 1824, 187 (type Anas rufina, Pall.). 



Netta, Kaup, Nat. Syst. 1829, 102 (same type). 



CalUchen, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. 1831, 921 (same type). 



Mergoicles, Eyton, Cat. Brit. B. 1836, 57 (same type). ^ 



CnAii. — Similar to Fulix, but the bill decidedly broader at the base 

 than at any other jDart, gradually narrowing* toward the end, which has 



* Some recent authorities Lave, with apparently a not very particular regard for 

 structural characters, used the generic term Fuligula for the entire group of lobe- 

 halluxcd river-ducks, or those Avhichhave usually been assigned to the genera i^M7i(/MZa, 

 Fulix, and ^thyia. But Anas rufina, Pall., upon which the genns Fuligula of Stephens 



