58 FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
female were the only individuals that he had ever met with. 
They had been shot on the river Delaware, and were depo- 
sited in Peale’s Museum. ‘On comparing this duck,’ he ob- 
serves, ‘with the description given by Latham of the Jamaica 
shoveller, | 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 consi- 
derably in colour; and, besides, has some peculiarities which 
the eye of that acute ornithologist could not possibly have over- 
looked in his examination of the species said to have been 
received by him from Jamaica. Wherever the general resi- 
dence of this species may be, in this part of the world, at least, 
it is extremely rare, since among the many thousands of ducks 
brought to our markets during winter, I have never heard 
of a single individual of the present kind having been found 
among them.’ 
“Tt is a circumstance in ornithology well worthy of note, 
that migratory birds frequently change their route, and, con- 
sequently, become common in those districts where they had 
been either unknown, or considered very rare. Of the Sylvia 
magnolia, Wilson declares that he had seen but two indivi- 
duals, and these in the western country; the Wuscicapa cucul- 
lata he says is seldom observed in Pennsylvania and the nor- 
thern States; the Muscicapa pusilla, and the Muscicapa 
Canadensis, he considered rare birds with us ; notwithstand- 
ing, in the month of May 1815, all of these were seen in our 
gardens ; and the editor noted the last-mentioned as among 
the most numerous of the passenger birds of that season. 
“The subject of this chapter affords a case in point. The 
year subsequent to the death of our author, this duck began 
to make its appearance in our waters. In October 1814, the 
editor procured a female, which had been killed from a flock, 
consisting of five, at Windmill Island, opposite to Philadel- 
phia. In October 1818, he shot three individuals, two females 
and a male; and in April last another male, all of which, 
except one, were young birds. He has also, at various times, 
