ANATIN^ — THE DUCKS — HISTRIONICUS. 55 



According to Yarrell, it is a rare and occasional visitor to the British coast. Two 

 specimens were shot, in 1802, on the coast of Scotland ; another was afterward taken 

 on the Orkneys — where, however, it is very rare. According to Vieillot, it has been 

 taken on the coasts of France and Germany ; Nilsson says it visits Sweden. 



Mr. Hewitson figures an egg of this species brought from Iceland by Mr. G. C. 

 Atkinson, of iS^ewcastle, who is said to have found a nest containing seven or eight 

 eggs, deposited in a bed of the bird's down, npon the grass bordering the margin of a 

 shallow lake — a position quite different from that of the nests seen by Mr. Shepard. 

 The egg is described as being of a pale buff tinged with green, and 2.13 inches long, 

 by 1.63 in breadth. 



In the " Zoologist " for 1850 Mr. J. J. Briggs publishes an interesting account of 

 the breeding of a pair of this species in confinement in the Melbourne Gardens in 

 Derbyshire. Although they had been kept there for several years, they did not breed 

 until 1849. In these grounds, at a considerable distance from the pool, where the 

 birds had usually lived, and in a retired part, was an ice-house, against which some 

 thatch-sheaves had been placed. Upon these, sheltered from wet and sun, at a height 

 of three feet, the pair formed a nest. This was simply a depression in the thatch, 

 made very soft and warm by being lined with down plucked from the parent bird. 

 The nest contained eight eggs, which were hatched about the middle of June. These 

 eggs are described as being similar in color to those of the European Partridge. 

 When the female left them to feed, she carefully covered them up with down. After 

 feeding, she was always escorted back to her nest by the male bird — who, however, 

 took no share in sitting on the eggs. Several of the young Ducks were reared, but 

 the female died. 



I am constrained to believe that Audubon's account of this bird and of its pres- 

 ence on our Atlantic coast is full of error. That it breeds, or has ever bred, on Seal, 

 Grand Menan, or White-head islands, is contrary to all the information I have been 

 able to obtain, after the most careful scrutiny. The gentleman who had Aiidubon's 

 party in charge assured me that during nearly fi^fty years' experience he has never 

 seen the " Lord and Lady Ducks," as these are there called, except in winter. He 

 was sure that none were seen Avhen Audubon was there, and that the nests taken at 

 White-head Islands were those of the Eed-breasted Merganser. My informant also 

 assured me that he had never met Avith this Duck on the coast of Labrador, but that 

 he had been told by trappers who had penetrated into the interior that it is found 

 only on the edge of mountain-streams or of elevated ponds and lakes, and even then 

 rarely. Its nest was unknown to him, nor had he ever heard of its having been met 

 with by others. 



Several years since. Dr. Hayden captured in the Eocky IMountains a female Har- 

 lequin Duck having a fully formed egg in her oviduct — proving that this species 

 probably breeds somewhere within our limits. 



In the summer of 1874 Dr. Coues found several pairs of these Ducks, with the 

 young still following the mother, in the Eocky Mountains, near Chief Mountain 

 Lake, in the northwestern corner of IMontana, lat. 49°. He saw them on some small 

 pools about the lakes, and also on a brawling mountain-brook — these being just such 

 places as would be inhabited by a Dipper. This was in the latter part of August. 

 One old bird, and several young ones still unable to fly, were secured. Some were 

 killed w^ith stones by the soldiers. The nest itself was not discovered. The birds 

 noticed on the mountain-brook, when alarmed, dived and swam entirely under water, 

 or with only the head exposed, — much like a Grebe. In one instance a bird took 

 refuge in a quiet spot behind a sheet of water that formed a little cascade. 



