RUDDY DUCK. 
139 
western country ; the Muscicapa cucuUata he says is seldom ob- 
served in Pennsylvania, and the northern states ; the Muscicapa 
pusilla^ and the Muscicapa Canadensis^ he considered rare birds 
Avith us; notwithstanding, in the month of May, 1815, all of these 
were seen in our gardens ; and the Editor noted the last mentioned 
as among the most numerous of the passenger birds of that sea- 
son. 
The subject of this chapter affords a case in point. The year 
subsequent to the death of our author this Duck began to make its 
appearance in our waters. In October, 1814, the Editor procured 
a female, which had been killed from a flock, consisting of five, at 
Wind-mill Island, opposite to Philadelphia. In October, 1818, he 
shot three individuals, two females and a male; and in April last 
another male, all of which, except one, were young birds. He has 
also at various times, since 1814, seen several other male specimens 
of this species, not one of which was an adult. In effect, the only 
old males which he has ever seen are that in Peale’s Museum, and 
another in the Cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phi- 
ladelphia. 
The Duck figured in the plate as the female was a young male, 
as the records of the Museum show ; the great difference between 
its colors and markings, and those of the full-plumaged male, hav- 
ing induced the author to conclude it was a female, although he 
was perfectly familiar with the fact, that the young males of several 
species of this genus so nearly resemble the other sex, it requires a 
very accurate eye, aided by much experience, to distinguish them 
by their external characters. This is precisely the case with the 
present species ; the yearlings, of both sexes, are alike ; and it is 
not until the succeeding spring that those characters appear in the 
males which enable one to indicate them, independent on dissec- 
tion. 
The opinion of our author that this species is not the Jamaica 
Shoveller of Latham the Editor cannot subscribe to, it appearing 
