164 Mr. A. Newton on the Harlequin Duck. 



I am inclined to believe that a good deal of misconception 

 exists as to the geographical range of this species, which I think 

 will be found to be much more limited than is usually supposed 

 to be the case. To take two of the latest published authorities 

 on the subject : Dr. Degland states (Orn. Europ. ii. 453) that 

 it '^ habite les contrees arctiques des deux mondes ;" and Mr. 

 Cassin, in Professor Baird's most valuable work on North Ame- 

 rican Ornithology, gives as its habitat (Pac. R. R. Report, Birds, 

 799), " Northern sea-coasts of northern hemisphere. ^^ Now, I 

 am pretty sure that in Europe, with the exception of Iceland 

 and Western Asia, it only occurs as an accidental straggler. I 

 believe I am authorized to say that, as far as Mr. Wolley^s expe- 

 rience goes, it is not known as a bird of Lapland, including in the 

 term the north of Norway and Finmark; and I can hardly under- 

 stand its being, as M. Temminck states (Man. d^Orn. ii. 879), 

 " abondant dans les contrees orientales de I'Em-ope,'^ without 

 its occasionally showing itself in the district which has been so 

 assiduously worked by my friend ; for I presume there can be no 

 doubt that M. Temminck did not intend to refer to any but the 

 northern part of Eastern Europe. In more southern Scandinavia 

 it is certainly rare *, as appears by Prof. Nilsson's statement 

 (Skandin. Eaun. ii. 441). I cannot find that it is known in 

 European Russia, but it seems to occur accidentally on the Cas- 

 pian and Sea of Aral. It is also said to be met with — like so 

 many other, to us rare, birds — about Lake Baikal ; and if the 

 report be true, I think this must be taken, according to our 

 present knowledge, as its normal western limit in Asia ; for in 

 the course of Dr. Middendorff's travels, it appears (Sib. Reise, 

 Zool. Bd. ii. Th. 2. p. 237) to have been found only in the 

 extreme east of Siberia, the localities for it mentioned by him 

 being the S'tanowoj Mountains, the southern coast of the Sea 

 of Ochotsk, and the interior of Mandchouria. This enterprising 

 traveller obtained a nestling bird on the 23rd of June at Uds^koj- 

 Os'trog, of which a characteristic representation is given in his 



* The late Mr. Thompson (B. Ireland, iii. 152) mentions, on the author- 

 ity of Captain May, the occurrence of four adult males in the month of 

 July, on a lake close to the entrance of the Salten Fjord ; but as no speci- 

 men was obtained, there might have been a mistake as to the si>ecies. 



