THE BIRD BOOK 
167. Ruddy Duck. Erismatura jamaicensis. 
Range. — Whole of North America, breeding 
chiefly north of the United States border except 
locally on the Pacific coast. Winters along the 
Gulf and through Mexico and Central America. 
This peculiar species may always be recognized 
by the brownish or chestnut upper parts, blackish 
crown, white cheeks and silvery white underparts. 
The bill is very stout and broad at the end, and 
the tail feathers are stiff and pointed like those 
Ruddy Duck 
Masked Duck 
Grayish white 
of a Cormorant. They build their nests in low 
marshy places, either placing them on the 
ground near the water or in the rushes over it. 
Their nests are made of rushes and grasses, 
sometimes lined and sometimes not, with down 
from the parents breast. The eggs number from 
six to twelve and are grayish in color. Size 2.40 
x 1.75. Data.— Northern Assiniboia, Canada, June 
6, 1901. Eight eggs. Nest made of aquatic 
grasses, lined with down. Built in a tuft of rushes 
in a marsh. Collector, Walter Raine. 
[168.] Masked Duck. Nomonyx dominions. 
This is a tropical species which is resident in Mexico, Central America and 
in the West Indies. It occurs in Mexico north to the lower Rio Grande Val- 
ley and has in three known instances strayed to northern United States. The 
general plumage is a rusty chestnut, mottled with blackish, it has a black face 
and throat, with white wins: bars. 
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