FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 59 
since 1814, seen several other male specimens of this species, 
not one of which was an adult. In effect, the only old males 
which he has ever seen are that in Peale’s Museum, and 
another in the Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia, 
“The duck figured in the plate as the female was a young 
male, as the records of the Museum show; the great difference 
between its colours and markings and those of the full-plum- 
aged male having induced the author to conclude it was a 
female, although he was perfectly familiar with the fact that 
the young males of several species of this genus so nearly re- 
semble the other sex, that it requires a very accurate eye, aided 
by much experience, to distinguish them by their external char- 
acters. ‘This is precisely the case with the present species ; 
the yearlings of both sexes are alike; and it is not until the 
succeeding spring that those characters appear in the males 
which enable one to indicate them, independent of dissection. 
“The opinion of our author that this species is not the 
Jamaica shoveller of Latham, the editor cannot subscribe to, 
it appearing to him that the specimen from which Latham 
took his description was a young male of the duck now before 
us. The latter informs us that the species appears in Jamaica 
in October or November, remains till March, and then retires 
to the north. This account coincides with ours: we see the 
_ bird on its way to the south in October ; it reaches Jamaica 
in November: it departs thence in March, and revisits us, in 
regular progression, in April. Where its summer residence is 
we are not informed; and we are equally ignorant whether 
the species is numerous in any part of our continent or not. 
“ Judging from the descriptions of the Ural duck of Euro- 
pean writers, there should seem to be a great affinity between 
that and the present. Through the polite attention of Mr 
Charles Bonaparte, the editor was enabled to examine a female 
specimen of the former; and as he perceived some differences, 
he will here note them. The bill of the Ural duck, from the 
angle of the mouth, is two inches long ; that of our duck is 
