56 RUDDY DUCK. 
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. 
On comparing this duck with the description given by 
Latham of the Jamaica shoveller, I was at first inclined to 
believe I 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 colour; and, besides, has 
some peculiarities which the eye of that acute ornithologist 
could not possibly have overlooked in his examination of the 
species said to have been received by him from Jamaica. 
Wherever the general residence of this species may be, in this 
part of the world, at least, it is extremely rare, smce among 
the many thousands of ducks brought to our markets during 
winter, I have never heard of a single individual of the pre- 
sent kind having been found among them. 
The ruddy duck is fifteen inches and a half in length, and 
twenty-two inches in extent; the bill is broad at the tip, the 
under mandible much narrower, and both 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 
serves, “‘We suspect that this bird, and one or two others of similar 
form, found by usin tropical Brazil, will constitute a subgenus.” There 
are many modifications from the Fuliyule in this bird, which would, 
with additional species, entitle a subgenus, and, in that case, Oxyura 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 the Fuligula; the feet are placed 
very far back, and the hind toe is furnished with a much narrower mem- 
brane.—Eb. 
