198 WATER FOWL. 



' I have killed many of them on the Kuriles during the 

 months of May, June, and July, but they never contained 

 ova of any size, so I conclude that they must lay earlier, 

 and my belief has been strengthened by killing a female 

 in Alaska which contained eggs as large as grapes early 

 in March.' Mr. A. W. Anthony [continues Captain 

 Bendire], writes me that a family of downy young were 

 seen near Silverton, Colorado, on July 15th and one was 

 taken. He states they are not uncommon there during 

 the nesting season. They have also been observed dur- 

 ing this time in Calaveras Co. and I have personally 

 seen a family of eight or nine, with full-grown young in 

 July, 1879, near Wenatchee, Kittitas Co., Washington, 

 on the Upper Columbia, and shot two of the birds. 

 There are no North American eggs of this species in the 

 National Museum collection, and I do not believe its 

 nest has as yet been found within the United States. I 

 should judge the tgg to be correctly described; it is fig- 

 ured by Hewitson in British Zoology, and by Baedeker, 

 Die Eicr ciirpaicschcn Vogcl/' 



In the Ibis for April, 1895, the Messrs. Pearson, writ- 

 ing upon some " Birds observed in Iceland," state that 

 Mr. H. J. Pearson on the nth of July, 1894, visited some 

 islands composed of lava, in the middle of a river, and 

 that the water ran like a mill race through three or four 

 channels worn in the lava. On these islands he found 

 six nests of the Harlequin Duck, three of them not two 

 feet from the water hidden under the leaves of the wild 

 anchelica, and the other three in holes in the banks, pro- 

 tected by a screen of plants. One contained seven eggs. 

 Very little down was in any of the nests. Many old nests 

 were in these holes, they having been apparently a favor- 

 ite breeding place for years. Mr. Pearson saw flocks of 

 more than thirty males together on several occasions 



