172 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
HARLEQUIN DUCK. 
CosMONETTA HISTRIONICA (Linnzeus). 
[Most of the alleged instances of the occurrence of 
the Harlequin Duck in Britain have proved to be 
spurious, and Yarrell’s record of one shot at Oulton? 
is open to the gravest doubt. In his critical account 
of this species as a British bird, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 
says :—‘I have very little doubt that Mr. Yarrell was 
mistaken when he adds that the keeper at Sir Philip 
Egerton’s shot a female in Cheshire in 1840. Great 
author as he was, he did not know what a rare bird 
the Harlequin was. At this distance of time I cannot 
attempt to disprove it, but the following are a few 
additional details with which Sir Philip has favoured 
me. He writes that he believes the under parts were 
not dark, which they ought to have been, that it was 
a bird of the year, and that it was never preserved. 
Its occurrence was only communicated to Mr. Yarrell 
on the authority of Professor Agassiz, who chanced to 
be staying at his seat at Oulton Park.’ ?| 
EIDER DUCK. 
SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA (Linnzus). 
To our western shores the Eider Duck is but an 
occasional wanderer, and there is only a single known 
instance of its occurrence in Cheshire. On December 
7th, 1894, an adult female in an exhausted condition 
1 Yarrell, History of British Birds, 3rd edit. vol. iii. p. 366. 
* Rambles of a Naturalist, p. 267. 
