138 
RUDDY DUCK. 
AJVJIS JMMICEJVSIS. 
[Plate LXXI. — Fig. 5, Jldult Male. — Fig. 6, Young Male,*^ 
Gmel. Syst. lip. 519, JVd. 83. — Lath. hid. Orn. p. 857, No. 63. Jamaica ShovellcTi Gen. 
Syn. in, />. 513. — Peale’s Museum^ No. 2808 ; female.^ No. 2809, 
IN the first edition of this work the author states that the two 
Ducks of this species figured in the plate, as male and female, were 
the only individuals that he had ever met with. They had been 
shot on the river Delaware ; and were deposited in Peale’s Mu- 
seum. On comparing this Duck,” he observes, “ with the de- 
scription 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 considerably in color ; and besides has some 
peculiarities which the eye of that acute ornithologist could not 
possibly have overlooked, in his examination of the species said 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 sin- 
gle 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, consequently, 
become common in those districts where they had been either un- 
known, or considered very rare. Of the Sylvia magnolia, Wilson 
declares that he had seen but two individuals, and these in the 
* Named in the plate, by mistake, Female. 
