Mr. A. Newton on the Harlequin Duck. 165 



work (pi, xxii. fig. 3). It probably also occurs in Japan, since, 

 according to Dr. Schlegel (Faun. Jap., Aves, 141), it is "repre- 

 sente de grandeur naturelle dans plusieurs reeueils japonnais." 



I take this opportunity of remarking, that in two or three 

 asserted instances of the occurrence of Anas histrionica in Great 

 Britain, other species seem to have been mistaken for it. In 

 ' The Zoologist' for 1847 (p. 1697) is a note by Dr. Battersby 

 of Torquay, that " a small flock of Harlequin Ducks have fre- 

 quented our bay, of which I have been fortunate enough to pro- 

 cure two specimens, a male and a female." Now, an example 

 obtained at that time, out of the same flock, was some years since 

 shown me by Mr. Burt, the energetic curator of the Torquay 

 Museum, and there can be no question of its being a young Long- 

 tailed Duck. Again, in ' The Zoologist' for 1852 (p. 3331), 

 my brother reported that a Harlequin Duck had been killed in 

 Banff'shire. This he did on the authority of the late Mr. Yarrell, 

 whose letter to Lord March, by whom the bird was shot and 

 kindly given to my brother, after having been submitted to the 

 inspection of that distinguished naturalist, is now before me. 

 In this letter Mr. Yarrell says positively that it " is a young 

 female of the 'Harlequin Duck ' in its first winter plumage ; " 

 but the bird is still in oui* possession, and, I regret to say, is not 

 the rarity I could wish, there being no doubt that it is only a 

 very young example of the Long-tailed Duck. Both this and 

 the Torbay specimens are referred to by Mr. Yarrell in the last 

 edition of his work (B. B. 3rd ed. vol. iii. p. 368). Further- 

 more, ' The Naturahst' for 1857 (p. 124) contains an extract 

 from ' The Devonport Journal,' which was also quoted in ' The 

 Times' of April 18th, 1857, asserting that a specimen of the 

 Harlequin Duck had been recently killed in Warwickshire ; but 

 Mr. H.Buckley, in the same periodical for 1858 (p. 124), states 

 that he made "particular inquiries" respecting this example, 

 and was " informed on undoubted authority that the bird which 

 was mistaken for that rare Duck was, in reality, a female Scaup 

 Duck {Fuligula marila)." In ' The Zoologist' for 1850 (p. 2949) 

 is a detailed account of a pair of Ducks said to be the Harlequin, 

 which built a nest and hatched a brood in a semi-domesticated 

 state at Melbourne in Derbyshire ; and this statement has been 



VOL. I. N 



