THE RUDDY DUCK. 525 



ERISMATURA RUBIDA. Bonaparte. 

 The Ruddy Duck ; Dipper Duck. 



Anas rubida, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 128, 130. 

 Anas (Fuligula) rubida, Bonaparte. Obs. Wils. (1825), 268. 

 Fuligula ( Gymnura) rubida., Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 426. 

 Fuligula rubida, Swainson. F. Bor. Am., II. (1831) 455. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. 

 (1838) 326. /&., Birds Am., VI. (1843) 324. 

 Eri&matura rubida, Bonaparte. List (1838). 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill grayish-blue; top of head and nape black; sides of head below the eyes, 

 with the chin, pure opaque-white; lower part of neck all round, and the entire upper 

 parts, with upper portion of sides, chestnut-red ; under parts generally lustrous gray- 

 ish-white, with an occasional brownish tinge; crissum pure-white; wings brown, 

 without speculum, finely and almost inappreciably sprinkled with gray ; tail nearly 

 black ; iris hazel. 



Female with the entire upper parts dark -brown ; the back and wing coverts finely 

 sprinkled with grayish ; the under parts brownish-white, tinged with greenish-brown 

 across the lower part of neck ; the brown of the head comes down below the level 

 of the eye, and there is an obscure dusky stripe parallel with its lower outline, from 

 the commissure. 



The continuity of the white of the under parts is interrupted by the occasional 

 appearance of the basal brown of the feathers, owing to the shortness of the white 

 tip, which thus gives rise to the appearance of dusky transverse bands. 



Length, sixteen inches ; wing, five and eighty one-hundredths ; tarsus, one and 

 twenty-six one-hundredths ; commissure, one and eighty one-hundredths inches. 



Hab. Whole of North America; abundant throughout the interior. 



This pretty little Sea Duck is not very common on our 

 coast. It visits us only late in the autumn, and remains 

 until early spring, frequenting the bays and inlets along the 

 shore, where it feeds on small fish and mollusks, which it 

 obtains by diving. It is so expert a diver that sportsmen 

 recognize it by the name of " Ruddy Diver " and " Dipper ; " 

 and all attest to the difficulty with which it is shot. 



Of its breeding habits, nest, and eggs, I am ignorant. 



Sub-Family MERGING. The Sheldrakes. 



Bill very slender, narrow, compressed, terminated by a conspicuous nail ; edges 

 much serrated, the serrations projecting; tarsi much compressed; the scales anteri- 

 orly large and transverse, becoming smaller and smaller on the sides and behind; 

 tail feathers eighteen in North-American species. 



