328 RUDDY DUCK. 
My opinion that the males of this species lose the brightness of 
their spring dress before they return to us in autumn, is founded on the 
occurrence of multitudes of males at that season destitute of the garb 
in question, and my examination of many for the purpose of determin- 
ing their sex and ascertaining that they were old birds. In February 
1832, I saw immense flocks of Ruddy Ducks about an hundred miles 
up the St John’s in Florida. They would start from the water, as our 
schooner advanced under sail, patting it with their feet, so as to make 
a curious and rather loud noise, somewhat resembling the fall of hail- 
stones on the shingles. Their notes are uttered in a rather low tone 
and very closely resemble those of the female Mallard. They afford 
good eating when fat and young, and especially when they have been 
feeding for some weeks on fresh waters, where their food generally con- 
sists of the roots and blades of such grasses as spring from the bottom 
of rivers and ponds, as well as of the seeds of many graminee. When 
on salt marshes, they eat small univalve shells, fiddlers, and young crabs, 
and on the sea-coast, they devour fry of various sorts. Along with . 
their food, they swallow great quantities of sand or gravel. 
At St Augustine, in Florida, I shot a young bird of this species 
immediately under the walls of the fort. Although wounded severely 
and with one of its legs broken close to the body, it dived at once 
My Newfoundland dog leaped into the water, and on reaching the spot 
where the bird had disappeared, dived also, andin a few moments came 
up with the poor thing in his mouth. When the dog approached 
I observed that the duck had seized his nose with its bill ; and when I 
laid hold of it, it tried to bite me also. I have found this species hard 
to kill, and when wounded very tenacious of life, swimming and diving 
at times to the last gasp. 
In the Fauna Boreali-Americana, the tail of the Ruddy Duck is 
said to be composed of sixteen feathers, and in Nutratu’s Manual of 
twenty ; but the number is eighteen. 
Ruppy Duck, Anas rusrpa, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii. p. 137, pl. 71, fig. 5. male ; 
pl. 130, fig. 6. young male. 
Furicura rusipa, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p- 390. 
FuricvuLa rusipa, Ruppy Duck, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii 
p. 455. 
Ruppy Duck, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 426. 
