THE PACIFIC EIDER. 809 
charging about the rocks on exploratory tours and sallies, but they seldom 
pass the gunner a second time, and have no reluctance to exchange one feeding 
ground for another. 
At Danger Rock, in President Channel, under date of June 24th, I note: 
“We thought we had seen Harlequin Ducks before, but when we returned to 
this island on the rising tide at 6.30 p. m., we put up a flock of not less than 
five hundred, and the sound of their rising was like the sound of a storm upon 
the water. Where do these birds come from? Where do they nest ? and above 
all when do they nest ? 
These questions are answered in part by W. H. Wright, the well-known 
guide and nature-photographer of Spokane. He reports this duck as fairly 
common about the headwaters of the mountain streams in the Cascades, but 
especially so in the Selkirks. He has never troubled to find the eggs, but has 
repeatedly flushed the females from under drift-piles and windfalls. Flocks 
of young appear by the middle of May, at a time when the snow is still many 
feet deep in places upon the banks of the torrential streams which they frequent. 
The old birds are often seen feeding or resting upon the snow-banks, while the 
young birds are capable of making their way thru the most troubled waters. 
On the whole it would appear that our summer idlers are aggregations of 
non-breeders, immature birds—they do not attain full plumage until the third 
year, according to Coues—and aged adults, the laggards of a great host whose 
active members annually lose themselves in the fastnesses of northern 
Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. 
It is noteworthy, however, in this connection, that during the reconnois- 
sance of the islands off the western coast of Washington, the Olympiades, 
during July, 1906, not a single Harlequin was sighted. In the following 
season, viz., June 24, 1907, a small flock was encountered near Ozette. 
No. 326. 
PACIFIC EIDER: 
A. O. U. No. 161. Somateria v-nigra Gray. 
Description.—‘“‘Adult male: Top of the head velvety black, with a slight 
violet gloss, divided mesially, from the middle of the crown back, by narrow stripe 
of greenish white; the black extending forward in a rather wide stripe along the 
upper edge of the lores, underneath the basal angle of the maxilla, but not ex- 
tending anteriorly as far as the nostril; greater wing-coverts, secondaries, middle 
line of the rump, upper tail-coverts, and entire lower parts from the breast back, 
deep black; primary-coverts, primaries, and tail blackish dusky; rest of the 
plumage, including the falcate tertials, continuous white, the breast tinged with 
creamy buff (much less deeply than in S. mollissima), the upper half of the nape, 
