50 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Spring migration. — Mainly coastwise, but also overland to north- 

 ern coasts. Dates of arrival : New Brunswick, Grand Manan, March 

 9; Ontario, Ottawa, April 2; Mackenzie, Fort Simpson, May 10; 

 northern Greenland, Etah, May 20; Boothia Felix, latitude 70°, 

 June 12; Winter Harbor, latitude 75°, June 22; Cape Sabine, lati- 

 tude 78°, June 1; Fort Conger, latitude 81°, June 6. Dates of ar- 

 rival in Alaska: Chilcat, March 11; Admiralty Island, April 17; 

 St. Michael, April 1; Cape Prince of Wales, April 22; Kowak 

 River, May 22; Humphrey Point, May 20; Point Barrow, May 15. 



Late dates of departure: Rhode Island, May 4; Massachusetts, 

 May 22 ; Maine, May 21 ; Gulf of St. Lawrence, May 23 ; Pennsyl- 

 vania, Erie, May 18; Alberta, Fort McMurray, May 15; southern 

 Alaska, May 19. 



Fall migration. — Reversal of spring routes. Early dates of ar- 

 rival: Great Bear Lake, August 28; Pennsylvania, Erie, September 

 13; Massachusetts, September 30; New York, Long Island, October 

 8 (average October 16). Late dates of departure: Northern Green- 

 land, latitude 82°, September 16; Alaska, Point Barrow, December 

 9, and St. Michael, October 20. 



Egg dates. — Arctic Canada: Fifty-three records, June 7 to July 

 18 ; 27 records, June 19 to July 4. Alaska : Sixteen records. May 22 

 to July 28; eight records, June 16 to July 9. Labrador: Three 

 records, June 16, 17, and 27. 



HISTRIONICUS HISTRIONICUS HISTRIONICUS (Linnaeus) 

 ATLANTIC HARLEQUIN DUCK 



HABITS 



The harlequin duck is a rare bird on the Atlantic coast of North 

 America, where its chief summer home is in Labrador and LTngava. 

 Comparatively little is known about it even there, as very little 

 thorough ornithological work has been done in that largely unex- 

 plored region. But in western North America the species is widely 

 distributed and in some sections of Alaska, notably the Aleutian 

 Islands, it is very abundant. W. Sprague Brooks (1915) has re- 

 cently separated the western bird, as a distinct subspecies, under the 

 name pacificus. As this seems to be a well-marked form with a 

 distinctly separate range, I have compiled a separate life history 

 for it. Except for the descriptions of the eggs and plumages, which 

 are the same for both forms, the following remarks refer nuiinly 

 to the Atlantic form. 



/Spring. — Mr. Lucien M. Turner's notes state that — 



They arrive at Fort Chimo by the 25th of May and then frequent the 

 smaller fresh-water ponds and lakes. They retire to the seashore by the 

 5th of June, or even earlier if the ice has cleared from the beach. The out- 



