260 ZOOLOGY. 



to have but little choice -whether they alight in muddy pools, quiet millponds, running brooks, 

 or in the surf of the ocean. At Port Steilacoom, where this species first arrives from the 

 north in the fall, the individuals are very fat, and in good order for the table. At this time 

 they are not at all shy; but by mid-winter they are generally lean, tough, and unsavory; and, 

 probably on account of their great powder experience, are much more shy and wary. As 

 divers they almost equal the dab-chick in dexterity. I once saw a male that I had just 

 wounded dive in clear water, and, seizing hold, bj' its bill, of a root growing under water, 

 remain voluntarily submerged for almost five minutes, until he supposed all danger past, when, 

 again ascending to the surface, he paddled oif with great rapidity. It is said that loons also 

 possess this instinctive cunning, and frequently, when wounded, seize hold of eel grass, &c., 

 on the bottoms of ponds, &c., where occasionally, becoming entangled, they die. — S. 



The buffle head, or butter duck, is only a winter resident, though it remains as late as May. 

 They frequent both fresh and salt waters, and seem especially fond of rapid rivers. — C. 



HISTRIONICUS TORQUATUS, Bonap. 



Harlequin Duck. 



^nn»AM(<n'on!ca,LiN.v. Sysl. Nat. ed. 10, I, 1758, 127; ed. 12th,l, 1766, 204.— Gmelin,!, 534.~LATn. Ind. Orn. II, 



1790, 849.— Wu-SON, Am. Orn. VlII, 1814, 139 ; pi. Ixxii. 

 Fuligula (Clangula) histriunica, Bon. Syn. 1828, 394. — Nuttall, Man. II, 448. 

 Fuligida histrionica, AuD. Orn. Biog. Ill, 1835, 612 ; V, 1839, 617 ; pi. 297.— In. Syn. 1839, 294.— Ib. Birds Amer. 



VI, 1843,374; pi. 409. 

 Clangula histrionica, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 489. 

 Histrianiciii torquatus, Bonap. Comptcs Rendus, XLUI, Sept. 1856. — Baibd, Gen. Rep. Birds, p. 799. 



Sp. Cn. — Male. — Head and neck all round dark blue. Jugulum, sides of breast, and upper parts, lighter blue, becoming 

 bluish black again on the tail covers. The blue of breast passes insensibly into dark bluish brown behind. A broad stripe 

 along the top of head from the bill to the nape, and the tail feathers, black. A white patch along the entire side of the 

 base of bill anterior to the eye, and passing upwards and backwards so aa to border the black of the crown, but replaced 

 from above the eye to the nape by chestnut. A round spot on the side of the occiput, an elongated one on the side of the 

 neck, a collar round the lower part of the neck, interrupted before and behind, and margined behind by clark blue, a trans- 

 versely elongated patch on each side of the breast, and similarly margined, a round spot on the middle wing coverts, a 

 transverse patch on the end of the greater coverts, the scapulars in part, a broad streak on the outer web of tertials, and a 

 spot on each side the rest of the tail, white ; sides of body behind chestnut brown. Secondaries with a metallic speculum of 

 purplish or violet blue. Inside of wing, and axillars, dark brown. 



Female with the head and body above, dark brown ; the chin more plumbeous ; the lower part of neck, breast, and under 

 parts generally, except the central region, (which is white,) duller and lighter brown ; a whitit^h patch in front of the eye, 

 and a rounded spot just behind the ear. 



Length, 17.50 ; wing, 7.70 ; tarsus, 1.48; commissure, 1.54. 



Uab. — Northern seacoast of northern hemisphere. 



The beautiful harlequin duck is, in winter, found sparingly on Puget Sound, where I 

 obtained three specimens; one of which, in most beautiful plumage, was presented to me by 

 Lieutenant Murden, of the United States revenue service, a gentleman to whom I was 

 indebted for many similar favors in other branches of natural history. It seems, when not 

 breeding, to be almost exclusively a salt water species, and, although Puget Sound is almost 

 as salt at its head as it is near the ocean, it is rarely found more than eighty miles from its 

 mouth, i. e., about half way up, where the sound is still wide, thus showing a predilection for 

 rough water, and no special liking for the placid waters of the quiet inlets and coves near its 

 iead. — S. 



