‘RUDDY DUCK. 619 
black; legs and feet, pale blue. The young birds, as in the other 
three species, strongly resemble the female during the first and part of 
the second year. As these changes of color, from the garb of the fe- 
male to that of the male, take place in the remote regions of the north, 
we have not the opportunity of detecting them in their gradual prog- 
ress to full plumage. Hence, as’ both males and females have been 
‘found in the same dress, some writers have considered them as a sepa- 
rate species from the Smew, and have given to them the title of the 
Red-headed Smew. 
__In the ponds of New England, and some of the lakes in the state of 
New York, where the Smew is frequently observed, these Red-headed 
kind are often found in company, and more numerous than the other, 
for very obvious reasons, and bear, in the markings, though not in the 
colors of their plumage, evident proof of their being the same ‘species, 
but younger birds, or females, The male, like the Muscovy Drake and 
many others, when arrived at his full size, is nearly one third heavier 
than the female ; and this disproportion of weight, and difference of 
color, in the full-grown males and females, are characteristic of the 
whole genus. 
——~+>—_. 
RUDDY DUCK.— ANAS RUBIDUS. — Fic. 297.— Mate. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 2808. 
J FULIGULA RUBIDA. — Bonararter.* 
Faligula (oxyura) rubida, Bonap. Synop. p. 391.— pole rubida, North. Zool. 
il. p. 455. — Anas Jamaicensis, Ord’s edit. p. 133. 
Tuts very rare Duck was shot, some years ago, on the River Dela- 
ware, and appears to be an entire new species. The specimen 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. ae eae 
On comparing this Duck with the description given by Latham of 
the Jamaica Shoveller, I was at first inclined to believe { 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 
color; and, besides, has some peculiarities which the eye of that acute 
ornithologist could not possibly have overlooked, in his examination 
* Bonaparte has proposed this form as the type of a sub-genus, under the name 
of Oxyura, from the form of the tail. And Mr. Swainson observes, *‘ We suspect 
that this bird, and one or two others of similar form, found by us in vopical Brazil, 
will constitute a sub-genus.” ‘There are many modifications from tne Fuligule in 
this bird, which would, with additional species, entitle a sub-genus; and, in that 
ease, Oxcyura may be adopted. They seem very rare, and Wilson has the merit 
of first distinguishing them ; the bill becomes much broader at the tip, and the 
lamelle are more prominent than in Fuligulu ; the feet are placed very far back 
and the hind toe is furnished with a much narrower membrane. — Ep. 
