90 The IVater-fowl Family 



undulated with black and white ; wing-coverts, white ; speculum, 

 green ; lower parts, white ; under tail-coverts, black ; tail, 

 pointed, brownish, becoming black at tip ; iris, hazel ; bill, 

 slate ; nail, black ; legs and feet, slate, with dusky webs. 



Measurements — Length, i8 inches; wing, lo inches; culmen, 1.40 

 inches; tarsus, 1.50 inches. 



Adult female — Head and neck, rusty, speckled with black; upper 

 parts, dusky brown, margined with gray ; wings, greenish brown ; 

 speculum, dull black ; upper tail-coverts, brown ; tail, purplish 

 brown, feathers edged with white ; breast and sides, light brown ; 

 rest of under parts, white ; under tail-coverts, barred with black- 

 ish brown ; iris, brown ; bill, slate ; nail, black ; legs and feet, 

 brown, with dusky webs. 



Measurements — Length, 18 inches; wing, 10.50 inches; culmen, 

 1.36 inches; tarsus, 1.50 inches. 



Eggs — Five to eight in number; pale buff; measure, 2.20 by 1.50 

 inches. 



Habitat — The northern parts of the eastern hemisphere, breeding 

 west to Iceland. Breeds probably also on the Aleutian Islands 

 and possibly in Greenland and west of Hudson Bay. In the 

 migrations and in winter, several have been recorded from Cali- 

 fornia, one from Nova Scotia, and twenty-five or thirty from 

 Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and from Ken- 

 ewatin and Great Slave Lake, though the last record may refer 

 to M. af/tericana, as the Kenewatin record certainly does. 



This bird, while breeding off Alaska to some 

 extent, is a rare straggler to the United States; 

 the more noteworthy instances of its occurrences 

 being on Long Island, December, 1842, Alex- 

 andria, Virginia, occasionally along the coast of 

 California. Two instances the writer has seen : 

 one an adult male, taken on the Illinois River; 

 the second a full-plumaged male, killed on Long 

 Island in the winter of 1899. The bird in most 



