FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 217 



The ruddy duck is fifteen inches and a half in length, 

 and twenty-two inches in extent ; the hill is broad at 

 the tip, the under raandihle much narrower, and hoth 

 of a rich light blue ; nostrils, small, placed in the middle 

 of the bill ; cheeks and chin, white ', front, crown, and 

 back part of the neck, down nearly to the back, black ; 

 rest of the neck, whole back, scapulars, flanks, and 

 tail-coverts, deep reddish brown, the colour of bright 

 mahogany ; wings, plain pale drab, darkest at the 

 points ; tail, black, greatly tapering, containing eighteen 

 narrow pointed feathers ; the plumage of the breast and 

 upper part of the neck is of a remarkable kind, being 

 dusky olive at bottom, ending in hard bristly points of 

 a silvery gray, very much resembling the hair of some 

 kinds of seal skins ; all these are thickly marked with 

 transverse curving lines of deep brown ; belly and vent, 

 silver gray, thickly crossed with dusky olive; under 

 tail-coverts, white ; legs and feet, ash coloured. 



273. ABAS RUB1DUS, WILSON. FEMALE BUDDY DUCK. 



WILSON, PLATE LXXI. TIG. VI. 



THIS is nearly of the same size as the male ; the front, 

 lores, and crown, deep blackish brown ; bill, as in the 

 male, very broad at the extremity, and largely toothed 

 on the sides, of the same rich blue ; cheeks, a dull 

 cream ; neck, plain dull drab, sprinkled about the 

 auriculars with blackish ; lower part of the neck and 

 breast, variegated with gray, ash, and reddish brown ; 

 the reddish dies off towards the belly, leaving this last 

 of a dull white, shaded with dusky ash ; wings, as in 

 the male ; tail, brown ; scapulars, dusky brown, thickly 

 sprinkled with whitish, giving them a gray appearance ; 

 legs, ash. 



A particular character of this species is its tapering 

 sharp pointed tail, the feathers of which are very 

 narrow; the body is short; the bill, very nearly as 

 broad as some of those called shovellers ; the lower 

 mandible much narrower than the upper. 



