334 RUDDY DUCK. 



seen several other male specimens of this species, not one oi 

 which was an adult. In effect, the only old males which he has 

 ever seen are that in Peale's Museum, and another in the Cabi- 

 net of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



The Duck figured in the plate as the female was a young 

 male, as the records of the Museum show; the great difference 

 between its colours and markings, and those of the full-plumaged 

 male, having induced the author to conclude it was a female, 

 although he was perfectly familiar with the fact, that the young 

 males of several species of this genus so nearly resemble the 

 other sex, it requires a very accurate eye, aided by much ex- 

 perience, to distinguish them by their external characters. This 

 is precisely the case with the present species; the yearlings, of 

 both sexes, are alike; and it is not until the succeeding spring 

 that those characters appear in the males which enable one to 

 indicate them, independent on dissection. 



The opinion of our author that this species is not the Jamaica 

 Shoveller of Latham the editor cannot subscribe to, it appearing 

 to him that the specimen from which Latham took his descrip- 

 tion was a young male of the Duck now before us. The latter 

 informs us that the species appears in Jamaica in October or 

 November; remains till March; and then retires to the north. 

 This account coincides with ours: we see the bird on its way to 

 the south in October; it reaches Jamaica in November; it departs 

 thence in March, and revisits us, in regular progression, in 

 April. Where its summer residence is we are not informed ; 

 and we are equally ignorant whether the species is numerous in 

 any part of our continent or not. 



Judging from the descriptions of the Ural Duck of European 

 writers, there should seem to be a great affinity between that 

 and the present. Through the polite attention of Mr. Charles 

 Bonaparte, the editor was enabled to examine a female speci- 

 men of the former; and as he perceived some differences, he will 

 here note them. The bill of the Ural Duck, from the angle of 

 the mouth, is two inches long: that of our Duck is one inch :m<l 



