FEMALE RUDDY DUCK. 
217 
The ruddy duck is fifteen inches and a half in length, 
and twenty-two inches in extent ; the bill is broad at 
the tip, the under mandible much narrower, and both 
of a rich light blue ; nostrils, small, placed in the middle 
of the bill ; cheeks and chin, white ; front, 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 colour of bright 
mahogany ; wings, plain pale drab, darkest at the 
points ; tail, black, greatly tapering, containing 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 ; all these are 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 coloured. 
273 . ANAS BUBIDUS, WILSON. FEMALE BUDDY DUCK. 
WILSON, PLATE LXXI. FIG. VI. 
This is nearly of the same size as the male ; the front, 
lores, and crown, deep blackish brown ; bill, as in the 
male, very broad at the extremity, and largely toothed 
on the sides, of the same rich blue ; cheeks, a dull 
cream ; neck, plain dull drab, sprinkled about the 
auriculars with blackish ; lower part of the neck and 
breast, variegated with gray, ash, and reddish brown ; 
the reddish dies off towards the belly, leaving this last 
of a dull white, shaded with dusky ash ; wings, as in 
the male ; tail, brown ; scapulars, dusky brown, thickly 
sprinkled with whitish, giving them a gray appearance ; 
legs, ash. 
A particular character of this species is its tapering 
sharp pointed tail, the feathers of which are very 
narrow ; the body is short ; the bill, very nearly as 
broad as some of those called shovellers ; the lower 
mandible much narrower than the upper. 
