60 FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
one inch and three-quarters ; it is also less gibbous at the base 
than in the former, and it is less depressed above: the tail- 
feathers of the Ural duck are guttered their whole length ; 
those of the ruddy duck are slightly canaliculated at their tips ; 
the lateral membrane of the inner toe of the latter is not half 
the breadth of that of the former. In other respects the females 
of the two species much resemble each other. In order to 
draw a just parallel, it would be necessary to examine a male 
specimen of the European bird, which our cabinets do not 
possess. 
“The adult male, figured in the plate, is thus described 
by our author :—‘ Length, fifteen inches and a half; extent, 
twenty-two inches ; bill, broad at the tip, the under mandible 
much narrower than the upper, 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, pale plain drab, darkest 
at the points ; tail, black, greatly tapering, containing eighteen 
narrow-pointed feathers; the plumage of the breast and 
upper part of the neck is of a remarkable kind, being dusky 
olive at bottom, ending in hard bristly points of a silvery . 
grey, very much resembling the hair of some kinds of seal- 
skins: this plumage is thickly marked with transverse curving 
lines of deep brown; belly and vent, silver grey, thickly 
crossed with dusky olive ; under tail-coverts, white; lees and 
feet, ash-coloured.’ 
“The female is fifteen inches in length; bill, to the angle 
of the mouth, one inch and three-quarters long, its lower half 
very broad, of a deep dusky olive, the nail resembling a narrow 
clasp of iron ; nostrils, oval, with a curved furrow below them ; 
eyes, small and dark; the upper part of the head, from the 
bill to the hind head, variegated with shining bronze and 
* So coloured in Peale’s specimen, but there is reason to conjecture 
that the colour of the upper mandible alone was a blue ash. 
