FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
163 
that shot in April, projected beyond the webs ; in one speci- 
men, the shaft of one of the middle feathers projected an inch, 
and was ramified into rigid bristles, resembling those of the 
tail of Buffon’s Sarcelle d queue epineuse de Cayenne^ PL Enl. 
967 ; in all the specimens, there was the appearance of the 
tail feathers having been furnished with the like process, but 
which had been rubbed off. Can it be that this duck makes 
use of its tail in climbing up the fissures of rocks, or the hol- 
lows of trees ? Its stiff narrow feathers, not unlike those of 
the tail of a woodpecker, would favour this supposition. It is 
worthy of note, that the tail of Mr Bonaparte’s female speci- 
men, alluded to above, is thus rubbed. 
The plumage of the neck and breast, which Wilson says is 
of a remarkable kind, that is, stiff and bristly at the tips, is 
common to several ducks, and therefore is no peculiarity. 
“ The body of this species is broad, flat and compact ; its 
wings, short and concave ; its legs placed far behind ; and its 
feet uncommonly large ; it consequently is an expert diver. 
It flies with the swiftness, and in the manner, of the buffel- 
head ; and it swims precisely as Latham reports the ural duck 
to swim, with the tail immersed in the water as far as the 
rump ; but whether it swims thus low with the view of em- 
ploying its tail as a rudder, as Latham asserts of the ural, or 
merely to conceal itself from observation, as the scaup duck is 
wont to do when wounded, and as ail the divers do when pur- 
sued, I cannot determine. 
This is a solitary bird ; and with us we never see more than 
five or six together, and then always apart from other ducks. 
It is uncommonly tame, so much so, that, by means of my 
skiff, I have never experienced any diificulty in approaching 
within a few yards of it. Its flesh I do not consider superior 
to that of the buffel-head, which, with us, is a duck not highly 
esteemed. 
“ I should not be surprised if Buffon’s Sarcelle d queue epineuse 
de Cayenne should turn out to be this species. The characters 
of the two certainly approximate ; but as I have not been en- 
