FExMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
157 
to have been received by him from Jamaica. Wherever the 
general residence of this species may be, in this part of the 
world, at least, it is extremely rare, since among the many 
thousands of ducks brought to our markets during winter, I 
have never heard of a single individual of the present kind 
having been found among them. 
The ruddy duck is fifteen inches and a half in length, and 
twenty-two inches in extent ; the bill is broad at the tip, the 
under mandible much narrower, 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, sca- 
pulars, flanks, and tail-coverts, deep reddish brown, the colour 
of bright mahogany ; wings, plain pale drab, darkest at the 
points ; tail, black, greatly tapering, containing eighteen nar- 
row-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 ; all these 
are thickly marked with transverse curving lines of deep 
brown ; belly and vent, silver grey, thickly crossed with dusky 
olive ; under tail-coverts, white ; legs and feet, ash-coloured. 
FEMALE RUDDY DUCK — Plate LXXI. Fig. 6. 
Peale's Museum^ No. 2809. 
FULIGULA RUBIDA Bonaparte, Young. 
This is nearly of the same size as the male ; the front, lores, 
and crown, deep blackish brown ; bill, as in the male, very 
broad at the extremity, and largely toothed on the sides, of 
the same rich blue; cheeks, a dull cream; neck, plain dull 
drab, sprinkled about the auriculars with blackish ; lower part 
of the neck and breast, variegated with grey, ash, and reddish 
brown ; the reddish dies off towards the belly, leaving this last 
