THE PACIFIC EIDER. 809 



charging about the rocks on exploratory tours and sallies, but they seldom 

 pass the gunner a second time, and ha\'e no reluctance to exchange one feeding 

 ground for another. 



At Danger Rock, in President Channel, under date of June 24th, I note : 

 "We thought we had seen Harlequin Ducks before, but when we returned to 

 this island on the rising tide at 6.30 p. m., we put up a flock of not less than 

 fi\'e hundred, and the sound of their rising was like the sound of a storm upon 

 the water. W'liere do these birds come from ? Where do they nest ? and above 

 all 7(.'licu do they nest ? 



These questions are answered in part by W. H. Wright, the well-known 

 guide and nature-photographer of Spokane. He reports this duck as fairly 

 common about the headwaters of the mountain streams in the Cascades, but 

 especially so in the Selkirks. He has never troubled to find the eggs, but has 

 repeatedly flushed the females from under drift-piles and windfalls. Fk^cks 

 of young appear Ijy the middle of May, at a time when the snow is still manv 

 feet deep in places upon the banks of the torrential streams which they frequent. 

 The old Ijirds are often seen feeding or resting upon the snow-banks, while the 

 3-oung birds are capable of making their wa}- thru the most troubletl waters. 



On the whole it would appear that our summer idlers are aggregations of 

 non-breeders, immature birds — they do not attain full plumage until the third 

 year, according to Coues — and aged adults, the laggards of a great host whose 

 active members annuall\' lose themselves in the fastnesses (if northern 

 Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. 



It is notewortin-, however, in this connectiiw, that during the reconnois- 

 sance of the islands off the western coast of Washington, the Ohnipiades, 

 during Juh\ 1906, not a single Harlecpiin was sighted. In the following 

 season, viz., Jvuie 24, 1907, a small flock was encountered near Ozette. 



No. 326. 



PACIFIC EIDER. 



A. O. U. Xo. 161. Somateria v=nigra Gray. 



Description. — "Adult male: Top of the head velvety black, with a slight 

 violet gloss, divided mesially, from the middle of the crown back, by narrow stripe 

 of greenish white; the black extending forward in a rather wide stripe along the 

 upper edge of the lores, underneath the basal angle of the maxilla, but not ex- 

 tending anteriorly as far as the nostril ; greater wing-coverts, secondaries, middle 

 line of the rump, upper tail-coverts, and entire lower parts from the breast back, 

 deep black; primary-coverts, i)rimaries, and tail blackish dusky; rest of the 

 plumage, including the falcate tertials, continuous white, the breast tinged with 

 creamy bulif (much less deeply than in 5". mollissima), the upper half of the nape, 



