156 
RUDDY DUCK. 
heavier than the female ; and this disproportion of weight, and 
difference of colour, in the full-grown males and females, are 
characteristic of the whole genus. 
RUDDY DUCK ANAS RUBIDUS. 
Plate LXXI. Fig. 5. Male. 
Peale's Museum^ No. 2808. 
FULIGULA Bonaparte.* 
Fuligula (oxyura) rubida, Bonap. Synop. p. 391. — Fuligula rubida, North. Zool. 
ii. p, 455»— Anas Jamaicensis, Ord's Edit. p. 133. 
This very rare duck was shot some years ago on the river 
Delaware, and appears to be an entire new species. The spe- 
cimen here figured, with the female that accompanies it, and 
which was killed in the same river, are the only individuals of 
their kind I have met with. They are both preserved in the 
superb museum of my much respected friend, Mr Peale, of 
this city. 
On comparing this duck with the description given by La- 
tham of the Jamaica shoveller, I 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 pre- 
sent differs considerably in colour ; and, besides, has some pe- 
culiarities which the eye of that acute ornithologist could not 
possibly have overlooked, in his examination of the species said 
* Bonaparte has proposed this form as the type of a sub-genus, under the 
name of Oxyura^ from the form of the tail. And Mr Swainson observes, “ We 
suspect that this bird, and one or two others of similar form, found by us in tro- 
pical Brazil, will constitute a sub-genus.” There are many modifications from 
the Fuliguloe in this bird, which would with additional species, entitle a sub-genus, 
and, in that case, Oxyura may be adopted. They seem very rare, and Wilson 
has the merit of first distinguishing them ; the bill becomes much broader at 
the tip, and the lamellse are more prominent than in Fuligula ; the feet are 
placed very far back, and the hind toe is furnished with a much narrower mem- 
bi’ane. — Ed. 
