LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 61 



At times the harlequins choose the swiftest riffles, and when feeding there 

 their method is the same as when in the less joyous waters. They apparently 

 dive from any position with equal ease, but always as they go down they 

 turn upstream, and even in the swiftest currents they come up in about the 

 same spot at which they went down. When feeding in these racing waters 

 they merely hesitate on the surface, and four or five dives are made in rapid 

 succession. Such work as this is strenuous, but the birds are quite at home 

 in the swiftest currents, and when tired from their exertions they swing 

 into an eddy behind some snag or bowlder and rest as they bob about on the 

 surface. 



M. P. Skinner writes to me that they have been observed coasting 

 down on the Yellowstone River almost to the brink of the Lower 

 Falls, 308 feet high, and then, when it seemed as if they would surely 

 go over, they would fly upstream again and repeat the performance. 



Game. — As a game bird the harlequin duck is of little importance. 

 It is a comparatively rare bird, or entirely unknown, in most of 

 the regions frequented by gunners; and even where it is fairly com- 

 mon its haunts are rather inaccessible. Moreover, it lives so largely 

 on animal food that its flesh is not particularly palatable. Among 

 the natives of the Aleutian Islands and other parts of Alaska, 

 however, large numbers are killed for food, Mr. Bretherton (1896) 

 describes the method of hunting employed by the natives of Kodiak 

 Island, as follows: 



When first the writer went to Kodiak he tried hunting with a boat, 

 relying on wing shooting to get his birds, but without much success ; and 

 seeing that the natives always got more birds, he changed his plan and took 

 to the natives' method, as follows : When a band of ducks was seen feeding, 

 a landing was made and the beach approached from the laud, the hunter 

 being careful not to be seen. By watching the flock it would be seen that 

 they all dived about the same time, and the time they remained down was 

 about the same length each time. When the last duck dives, the hunter 

 runs toward them, dropping in the grass or behind a rock about the time 

 he calculates the first duck should be coming up again. In this manner 

 he can approach close to the flock, that ndarly always feed in the shallow 

 water along the shore. When the last run is made, the hunter, if an old 

 hand, stands on the edge of the water, the gun at " ready," and a couple of 

 extra shells in the hollow of his right hand, the flock all being down. The 

 first duck that comes up gets it, and the second one gets the second barrel, 

 and in this way, by sharp practice, it is often possible to bag six or seven 

 out of one flock, 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Western North America and northeastern Asia. 

 East in northwestern Canada probably to the Mackenzie Valley and 

 Great Slave Lake, but nowhere else east of the Rocky Mountain 

 region. South in the Rocky Mountain region to Montana (Glacier 

 National Park, Chief Mountain Lake, etc.), Wyoming (Shoshone 

 River), and Colorado (Blue River near Breckenridge) . West to 



