VELVET DUCK. 
459 
CEDEMIA PUSCA. 
Velvet Duck. 
CEdemiafusca Sw., F. Bor. Am, II; 1831, 449. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Cn. Form, robust. Size, very large. Bill, long. Color. Adult male. Black throughout, with an elongated 
patch around eye and large speculum, white. Bill, red, black at base and on edges, iris, yellow, and feet, reddish-brown. 
Adult female. Brown throughout, darkest on back. Circular space at base of bill, elongated patch back of ear, and un¬ 
der parts, whitish, the latter mottled with dusky. Speculum, white. Bill, black. Young. Similar to adult female. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Known by the dark colors and white speculum. Distributed in summer from Labrador, northward; wintering from 
Massachusetts to the Carolinas. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of specimens from Eastern North America. Length, 20'68; stretch, 37-00; wing, 1P00, tail, 
342; bill, 1'48; tarsus, 1*70. Longest specimen, 21'60; greatest extent of wing, 38'75; longest wing, 11*50; tail, 3 60: bill, 
P55: tarsus, 1*99, Shortest specimen, 19*75; smallest extent of wing, 35*25; shortest wing, 10'50; tail, 3'25; bill, 1*40; tar¬ 
sus, 1*50. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Nests, placed on the ground near the water, composed of sticks, weeds, down, etc. Eggs, six to ten in number, oval in * 
form, and dirty-creamy in color. Dimensions from l'80x2'60 to 1*85x2*65. 
HABITS. 
Among the most abundant of the order on our coast, are the Velvet Ducks, or White- 
winged Coots as they are called by sportsmen. They are much hunted, more for the ex¬ 
citement of the sport, however, than because of their value, for as they are nearly worth¬ 
less for culinary purposes, the prices which they bring in the markets, will scarcely pay 
for the ammunition expended in killing them. As related, these birds fly into the mouths 
of rivers to feed and the gunners taking advantage of this fact, range themselves along the 
channel in the mouth of some stream, in boats, in order to shoot the birds as they fly past. 
This pastime,* although exciting, especially when the birds fly thick, is not unattended 
with spme risk to life, for as the men are obliged to pull up the anchor and row after the 
birds that fall, there is danger of being swept out to sea with the swiftly flowing, out-going 
tide which, at the mouths of some of our rivers, rushes seaward with a force, against which 
the powers of man often prove unequal, especially when a strong wind is blowing with the 
current. I have witnessed some hair-breadths escapes and was once fortunate enough to 
pick up a man who had lost control of his skiff, just as he was being swept into the break¬ 
ers. Then, although we had only gone about two hundred yards from our anchorage to 
accomplish this, three of us were obliged to labor at the oars for two hours, before we re¬ 
gained the lost ground. 
GENUS XVI. ERISMATURA. THE STIFF-TAILED DUCKS. 
Gen. Ch. Bill, shorter than head, rather high at base, broad at tip , and slightly bent upward. Tail, stiffened, with cov¬ 
erts, short. Neck, short. 
The trachea is slightly dilated near the middle bu<- the larynx is without special expansion. The stomach is muscu¬ 
lar. Sexes, not similar,' There is but one species within our limits. 
ERISMATURA RUBIDA. 
Ruddy Duck. y 
Erismatura rubida Bon, List, 1838. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Cn. Form, rather robust. Size, not large. Top of head and nape, black. Sides of head below eyes and chin, 
white. Neck all around, upper parts, and flanks, chestnut-red. Beneath, -grayish-white, tinged with brown and trans¬ 
versely banded with dusky. Wings and tail, dark-brown. Bill and feet, ashy-blue, and iris, brown. 
Adult female and winter male. Upper surface, dark reddish-brown, finely spotted and marked with wav.y lines of dusk- 
y; throat, and line at base of bill, whitish. Otherwise as in male. Young. Similar, but paler. 
