FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
]6l 
bright mahogany; wings, pale plain drab, darkest at the points; 
tail, black, greatly tapering, containing eighteen narrow-point- 
ed 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 re- 
sembling the hair of some kinds of seal-skins — this plumage is 
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/ 
The female is fifteen inches in length ; bill, to the angle of 
the mouth, one inch and three quarters long, its lower half 
very broad, of a deep dusky olive, the nail resembling a narrow 
clasp of iron ; nostrils, oval, with a curved furrow below them ; 
eyes, small and dark ; the upper part of the head, from the 
bill to the hind head, variegated with shining bronze and 
blackish brown, the latter crossing the head in lines ; cheeks, 
white, mixed with dusky, and some touches of bronze ; lores, 
drab and dusky, mixed with a small portion of white ; neck, 
short and thick, its lower half above, extending between the 
shoulders, drab, mixed with dusky ; throat, and whole lower 
parts, dusky ash, the plumage tipt with dull white, having a 
silver grey appearance ; the upper parts are dusky, marked or 
penciled with pale ferruginous, and dull white ; breast, slightly 
tinged with reddish brown ; the wings are small, greatly con- 
cave, and, when closed, are short of the extremities of the tail- 
coverts, about three quarters of an inch ; they are dusky, their 
coverts finely dotted or powdered with white ; tail, dusky, 
marked at its extremity with a few very fine dots of reddish 
white ; it extends beyond its upper coverts two inches and a 
half; under tail -coverts, white; legs and feet, dusky slate; 
weight, sixteen ounces and a half. The gizzard of the above 
contained sand, and some small seeds. Her eggs were nume- 
rous, and tolerably large ; hence, as she was shot in the month 
of October, it was conjectured that she was a bird of the pre- 
ceding year. 
VOL. III. 
L 
