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RUDDY DUCK. 



•f- FlJLIGULA RUBIDA, Wils. 

 PLATE CCCXCIX.— Male, Female, and Young. 



Look at this plate, reader, and tell me whether you ever saw a greater 

 difference between young and old, or between male and female, than is 

 apparent here. You see a fine old male in the livery of the breeding season, 

 put on as it were expressly for the purpose of pleasing the female for awhile. 

 The female has never been figured before; nor, I believe, has any represen- 

 tation been given of the young in the autumnal plumage. Besides these, 

 you have here the young male at the approach of spring. 



The Ruddy Duck is by no means a rare species in the United States; 

 indeed I consider it quite abundant, especially during the winter months in 

 the Peninsula of Florida, where I have shot upwards of forty in one morn- 

 ing. In our Eastern Districts they make their appearance early in Septem- 

 ber, and are then plentiful from Eastport to Boston, in the markets of which, 

 as well as of New York, I have seen them. On the Ohio and Mississippi 

 they arrive about the same period; and I have no doubt that they will be 

 found breeding in all our Western Territories, as soon as attention is paid to 

 such matters as the searching for nests with the view of promoting science, 

 or of domesticating birds which might prove advantageous to the husband- 

 man. 



My friend Dr. Bachjian informs me that this species is becoming more 

 abundant every winter in South Carolina. In the month of February he 

 has seen a space of the extent of an acre covered with it. Yet he has never 

 found one in full summer plumage in that country. It is equally fond of 

 salt or brackish and of fresh waters; and thus we find it at times on our sea- 

 coast, bays, and mouths of rivers, as well as on lakes and even small ponds 

 in the interior, or on our salt marshes, provided they are not surrounded by 

 trees, as it cannot rise high in the air unless in an open space of considerable 

 extent. At the time of their arrival, they are seen in small flocks, more 

 than from seven to ten being seldom found together, until they reach the 

 Southern States, where they congregate in great flocks. When they leave 

 their northern breeding-grounds, some proceed along the coast, but a greater 

 number along our numerous rivers. 



The flight of the Ruddy Duck is rapid, with a whirring sound, occasioned 



