RUDDY DUCK. 
141 
crown, and back part of the neck down nearly to the back, black ; 
rest of the neck, whole back, scapulars, flanks, and tail-coverts, 
deep reddish brown, the color of bright mahogany; wings pale 
plain drab, darkest at the points ; tail black, greatly tapering, con- 
taining eighteen narrow, pointed 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 
gray, very much resembling the hair of some kinds of seal-skins — 
this plumage is thickly marked with transverse curving lines of 
deep brown ; belly and vent silver gray, thickly crossed with dusky 
olive ; under tail-coverts white ; legs and feet ash colored.” 
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, ex- 
tending between the shoulders, drab, mixed with dusky ; throat, 
and whole lower parts, dusky ash, the plumage tipt with dull 
white, having a silver gray 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 concave, 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; tad 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 
2 N 
VOL. VIII. 
