HARLEQUIN DUCK. 6l 



Immature drakes show more white than ducks. An immature 

 duck in December had head and neck mummy brown and an 

 incomplete white collar, mouse-grey shoulders and mottled-grey 

 wings, and smoky-grey breast. The bill was brown tinged with 

 yellow, the legs dull yellow, and the irides brown. Male : 

 Length, i8 ins. Wing, 8*25 ins. Tarsus, I'S ins. Female : 

 Length, 16 ins. Wing, 775 ins. Tarsus, i'4. ins. 



Buffel-headed Duck. Glaucion albeola (Linn.). 



Buffel-head, a contraction of buffalo-head, is descriptive ; it 

 conveys the idea of a heavy-maned head like that of the 

 American bison, and this, with a slight stretch of imagina- 

 tion, is what is suggested by the elongated head feathers of the 

 Goldeneyes and their near relatives. The Buffel-head breeds 

 in the north of America and wanders so far south as the West 

 Indies ; on two or three, and probably more, occasions it has 

 strayed to Britain. It is a smaller bird than our Goldeneye, and 

 both drake and duck may be recognised by the white patch or 

 band which runs upwards from behind the eye to the crest. In the 

 drake this mark is larger and more distinct on his glossy green 

 head than on the more soberly coloured duck. Females and 

 immature birds, in addition to showing this mark, are browner 

 than Goldeneyes in similar dress. The bill is bluish, tipped 

 with yellow, the legs yellowish, and the irides brown. Length, 

 14-16 ins. Wing, 6-5 ins. Tarsus, i in. 



Harlequin Duck. Histrionicus histrioniais (Linn.). 



Mr. J. H. Gurney investigated the many reputed occurrences 

 of this bird and relegated some twenty to the obscurity they 

 deserved, leaving only two or three trustworthy records. The 

 drake Harlequin, as the name suggests, is a gay, parti-coloured 

 bird, utterly unlike any other, but the sombre duck is apt to be 

 confused with the female Long-tailed Duck. Perhaps it is strange 



