158 
FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
of a (lull white, shaded with dusky ash ; wings, as in the male ; 
tail, brown ; scapulars, dusky brown, thickly sprinkled with 
whitish, giving them a grey appearance ; legs, ash. 
A particular character of this species is its tapering sharp 
pointed tail, the feathers of which are very narrow ; the body 
is short ; the bill, very nearly as broad as some of those called 
shovellers ; the lower mandible much narrower than the upper. 
Mr Ord has added a very elaborate description in his edi- 
tion of this work, completing the history of this bird, which 
we have thought best to print, as showing many points of dis- 
cussion ; we, however, consider the species established as 
above named. 
In the first edition of this work, the author states that the 
two ducks of this species figured in the plate, as male and fe- 
male, were the only individuals that he had ever met with. 
They had been shot on the river Delaware ; and were depo- 
sited in Peale’s Museum. ‘ On comparing this duck,’ he ob- 
serves, ‘ with the description given by Latham 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 present differs consider- 
ably in colour ; and, besides, has some peculiarities which the 
eye of that acute ornithologist could not possibly have over- 
looked, in his examination of the species said to have been 
received by him from Jamaica. Wherever the general resi- 
dence 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.’ 
It is a circumstance in ornithology well worthy of note, 
that migratory birds frequently change their route, and, con- 
sequently, become common in those districts where they had 
been either unknown, or considered very rare. Of the Sylvia 
magnolia^ Wilson declares that he had seen but two indivi- 
duals, and these in the western country ; the Muscicapa cucuU 
