SPECIES 17. tfNAS RUBIDUS, 



RUDDY DUCK. 

 [Plate LXXI Fig. 5, Mult Male.'] 



PEALE'S Museum, JVb. 2808. 



THIS very rare Duck was shot, some years ago, on the river 

 Delaware, and appears to be an entire new species. The speci- 

 men here figured, with the female that accompanies it, and 

 which was killed in the same river, are the only individuals of 

 their kind I have met with. They are both preserved in the 

 superb Museum of my much respected friend, Mr. Peale, of 

 this city. 



On comparing this Duck with the description given by Latham 

 of the Jamaica Shoveller, I was at first inclined to believe I 

 had found out the species; but a more careful examination of 

 both satisfied me that they cannot be the same, as the present 

 differs considerably in colour; and besides has some peculiari- 

 ties which the eye of that acute ornithologist could not possibly 

 have overlooked, in his examination of the species said to have 

 been received by him from Jamaica. Wherever the general 

 residence of this species may be, in this part of the world, at 

 least, it is extremely rare, since among the many thousands of 

 Ducks brought to our markets during winter, I have never 

 heard of a single individual of the present kind having been 

 found among them. 



The Ruddy Duck is fifteen inches and a half in length, and 

 twenty-two inches in extent; the bill is broad at the tip, the un- 



