52 BULLETIX 130, UXITED STATi:S NATIONAL MUSEUM 



me particularly wlien I saw it swimming upstream with unparalleled swift- 

 ness through the frothing foam of the Laxa, winding about through the 

 eddies of the strongest breakers, and making use of the quieter places in the 

 most skillful way. I then always had in mind the other much less common 

 Icelandic name Brindufa (breaker dove). I have never seen the harlequin 

 duck make an even temporary stay on the lake, but they always keep to the 

 swiftly flowing rivers of the neighborhood ; e. g., on the Laxa, where I visited 

 a small breeding colony near the Helluvad farm. When I came to this place 

 on June 24 I was several times obliged, in order to reach the nests, to ride 

 through the water of the river to a series of small heath-overgrown rock 

 islands upon which the ducks breed. Here I found, in addition to several nests 

 of the FuUgula marila, four nests of the F. histrionica; it is certain that 

 there were still more nests to be found close to. I put the number of pairs 

 nesting at this place at from 10 to 12. The first nest, standing under a thick 

 clump of heath, had a sort of bank of dry heath around the shallow hollow of 

 the site of the nest. This hoUowed-out basin contained the first half -finished 

 lining of gray down mingled with fine dry grass. In the nest lay five eggs, 

 which I took away, and which proved not to have been sat on at all. This 

 nest had been hitherto untouched by human beings, but not so the others 

 which I saw, and which had already lost some of their eggs. The next nest 

 showed exactly the same construction, and in this the down lining was still 

 altogether wanting. This one contained only two eggs. While the two first 

 nests we have just described were some paces from the edge of the island, 

 the next, unprotected by heath growth, was placed on a small piece of rock 

 jutting out over the river. The basin contained a complete lining of gray 

 down mixed with grass, and the loose edge of this was carefully pulled down 

 over three eggs which were in the nest. The duck fiew away from the fourth 

 nest which I visited as soon as I was quite close to it, and this one again was 

 placed more in the middle of the island under a clump of heath, and was very 

 plentifully lined with down with an unusually small admixture of parts of 

 pL'ints ; it contained three eggs. 



The doAvn in the harlequin duck's nest is " olive brown " or " drab," 

 with rather large, but not very conspicuous, whitish centers. Small 

 whitish breast feathers, with a pale brov\-nish central spot and pale 

 brownish tip, are usually found in the down. 



Eggs. — The harlequin duck laj^s from 5 to 10 eggs, usually about 

 6. The shape varies from blunth^ ovate to elongate ovate, and some 

 eggs are quite pointed. The shell is smooth and slightly glossy. 

 The color varies from " light buff " or " cream color " to paler tints 

 of the same. The measurements of 90 eggs, in various collections, 

 average 57.5 by 41.5 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 61 by 42.5, 59 by 44, 52 by 39, and 56.2 by 37.5 millimeters. 



Young. — Incubation is performed entirely by the female, who 

 also assumes full care of the young. Audubon (1840) writes: 



The male leaves her to perform the arduous but, no doubt to her, pleasant 

 task of hatching and rearing the brood, and, joining his idle companions, 

 returns to the seashore, where he molts in July and August. The little ones 

 leave the nest a few hours after they burst the shell, and follow their mother 

 to the water, where she leads them about with the greatest care and anxiety. 

 When about a week old she walks with them to the sea, where they continue. 



