. latwal History* 
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X til Uv- X. The Ruddy Duck. 
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' 0 ( Erismatura rubida.) 
North America at large, is the range given for this little duck, 
from which we infer that it is found in all suitable localities, 
from the Mexican boundary and Gulf, north to the Arctic Seas, 
and across from ocean to ocean. South to Guatemala, where it 
was found breeding at Duenas, gives it a still more extended dis- 
tribution, and Cuba completes the list of localities cited by Dr. 
Coues for its habitat. The same author gives it as a Missouri 
species in all suitable situations, during the migration, and breed- 
ing within the region. He found numbers in July about Turtle 
Mountain, Dakota, nesting the pools in which the young were 
swimming. Montana, along the Milk river and its northern trib- 
utaries, is another point of observation. Mouth of the Platte, 
LieutenantLWarren’s expedition, and Pacific creek, Wyoming, of 
the later expeditions, are also given as localities, in that muitum 
inparvo, the “thirds of the Northwest.” 
The ruddy duck was first described by the ornithologist Wilson, 
from a pair shot on the Delaware, and it is in his work that we 
first have a notice, description and drawing of this then-supposed 
rare species. Later, Ord, in his edition of Wilson, speaks of its ex- 
ceeding rarity in Wilson’s time, but he further adds, the year subse- 
quent to that author’s death, the ruddy duck began to make its ap- 
pearance in the waters of the Delaware. In October, 1814, Ord pro- 
cured a female, killed from a flock of five, at Windmill Island, 
opposite Philadelphia, and in October, 1818, he again procured it, 
shooting three, a male and two females. This rare species seemed 
to be getting more abundant, and a few years later Audubon, with 
his graphic pencil, delineated the birds in their several stages of 
plumage, accompanying the drawing with an elaborate account, 
and considering it a very common bird. Coming down to the 
present date we may consider the ruddy duck as an abundant 
species throughout its extensive range, that is, in all such places 
favoring the habits of such an aquatic bird. The bays and estuaries 
of our Atlantic shore, which offer so many and varied attractions 
for the numerous wild fowl which frequent the coast, is where the 
Eastern sportsman is best acquainted with the ruddy duck, 
clad in the brown and gray mottle of the female and immature 
stages. On the Delaware he goes by the name of “ stiff tail,” 
from the narrotv pointed tail feathers, which distinguish him at 
Once from other ducks. On the Chesapeake he passes under the 
loose soubriquet of coot, shared in common with several other 
species. Of their abundance in certain places at certain times, 
a circumstance comes to mind, related by Mr. C. S. Westcott ; he 
was goose-shooting with a friend in Sinepuxent sound, Maryland, 
! when one night the bay froze entirely over. Next morning an 
air hole was discovered about one hundred and fifty yards from 
the stern of the yacht, covering about two or three acres, which 
was found to be alive with ducks — ruddies, piedies, whistlers, and 
a sprinkling of red heads, but the ruddies were by far the most 
numerous. No geese were to be seen, so the ducks received 
all the attention ; through the entire day they came 
into the air-hole by hundreds, and continued to do 
so all through the next, when the ice broke up. At 
the mouth of one of the many rivers, or more properly speaking, 
arms, that extend along the upper shores of the great Chesapeake 
bay, the duck shooter is comfortably ensconced in his blind, 
waiting for the dawn to start the birds on the wing. As a few 
faint gleams of sunlight strike among the decoys which are bob- 
bing up and down as the chilly south-east breeze chops and. rip- 
ples the water, the sportsman sees on the farther edge three or 
four dark-looking objects diving and swimming about. They are 
ruddy ducks, and as the light increases many other groups are 
seen scattered around. The coot6 are busy feeding. If one who 
has worked in too near the decoys be shot and examined he 
will probably be found to have breakfasted on the roots and 
blades of some aquatic grasses, and perhaps some univalve or 
a fiddler may swell the bill of fare. A bad day, as it is termed, 
is often struck by the ducker ; it looked promising for ducks, but 
the wind shifted, and the noble canvas-back and the red-heads 
that only yesterday were so numerous, seem now to have for- 
saken the place ; even the jinglers and whistlers have gone, and 
the few black-heads that stray up are regular “skyscrapers.” 
But mark out there those three little ducks skimming low over the 
water; they are ruddies — coots, we would call them, and they 
seem to be coming in ; but we are mistaken. One, two, three 
splashes away out in the bay tell that they have struck water, 
where they will remain, diving and sporting and swimming, till 
the oyster pungies, working into the opposite shore, toward 
evening, compel them to take wing and then we may look out for 
a shot. Spencer Trotter. 
ZOOLOGY . 1 
Peculiar Feathers of the young Ruddy Duck. — The un- 
usually narrow, rigid and acuminate tail-feathers which constitute 
a character of the genus Erisniatura are much more peculiar at an 
early stage of their growth. The curious structure will doubtless 
be new to most readers of the Naturalist. 
The accompanying cut will give an idea of the general appear- 
ance of the feather, which is, in 
fact, double, one complete feather 
growing on the end of another, 
and the two being dissimilar in 
structure. 
To the naked eye the terminal feather appears to be simply a pro- 
longation of the shaft of the other, as a slightly swollen, stiff stem pro- 
jecting an inch or more beyond the true web, and bearing upon its 
terminal half a bunch of loose, disconnected barbs, more or less 
recurved, and fringed with light fluffy barbules. With a lens 
this terminal portion is seen to be a distinct feather, complete in 
all its parts, borne upon the end of the other. It has a simple 
124., . „ General Notes. 
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[February, 
/S' 7 Sr 
cylindrical barrel for half its length; at the point where the vane 
begins, it sends off a bunch of barbs constituting an after-shaft ; 
it then becomes channeled along the under side, and gives off its 
loose barbs alternately on either side, forming a disconnected 
vane; thus presenting all the more essential parts of a complete 
feather (whether barbicels and hooklets are present or not I can- 
not now determine for want of a microscope). The proximal 
half of this duplex affair is in all respects a perfect feather of 
ordinary character. The distinction of the two feathers is clearly 
seen at the point where the end of the channeled and densely- 
pithy shaft changes into the enlarged, cylindrical and nearly hol- 
low quill of the terminal supplementary feather. The relations 
of the two being such, they must have sprouted from the same 
matrix, one after the other, the true feather following after the 
temporary downy one, which is deciduous, and falls off when the 
duckling is about ten inches long. The process is essentially the 
same, of course, as that by which the downy tip of an ordinary 
contour-feather is shed ; but it might not be expected to occur in 
the case of such a particularly strong and stiff rectrix as Erisma- 
tura possesses . — Elliott Coues, Turtle Mountain, Dakota, July, 1874. 
