336 
RUDDY DUCK. 
in length; its irides were dark brown; bill elevated at the base, 
slightly gibbous, and blue ash, from the nostrils to the tip mixed 
with dusky, lower mandible yellowish flesh colour, marbled 
with dusky; crown brown black; throat and cheeks, as far as 
the upper angle of the bill, white, stained with bright yellow 
ochre; auriculars almost pure white; the black from the crown 
surrounded the eyes, and passed round the white of the auricu- 
lars; hind-head black, mixed with ferruginous; breast and shoul- 
ders bright ferruginous; belly ash and silver white; back and 
scapulars liver brown, finely penciled with gray and reddish 
white; rump and upper tail-coverts the same ground colour, but 
the markings not so distinct; wings light liver brown, the lesser 
coverts finely powdered with gray; on the back and scapulars, 
the flanks, and round the base of the neck, the brownish red or 
bright mahogany coloured plumage, which distinguishes the adult 
male, was coming out; inner webs of the tail partly dusky, out- 
er webs, for two-thirds of their length, and the tip, dirty ferrugi- 
nous; legs blue ash in front, behind, the toes and webs, dusky. 
When the tail is not spread, it is somewhat conical, and its 
narrow, pointed feathers, are slightly guttered at their tips; 
when spread, it is wedge-shaped. The trachea is of nearly equal 
diameter throughout; and has no labyrinth or enlargement at its 
lower part. 
Another young male, shot in October, measured fifteen and 
a quarter inches in length, and twenty-three inches in breadth; 
bill greenish black, lower mandible yellowish flesh colour, mixed 
with dusky; from the bill to the hind-head a deep liver brown, 
the tips of the plumage bronzed; whole upper parts dark um- 
ber brown, pencilled with pale ferruginous, buff and white; from 
the corner of the mouth a brown marking extended towards the 
eye; tail dusky, ash coloured at its extremity; legs and feet 
dusky ash, toes paler, having a yellowish tinge, webs dusky, 
claws sharp. 
The shafts of the tail feathers of all these specimens, except 
that shot in April, projected beyond the webs; in one specimen 
