Duck-shooting 157 



being audible from a distance. This habit is 

 described by Mr. George H. Mackay in the Auk 

 for October, 1892. 



HARLEQUIN DUCK 

 ( Histrionicus histrionicus) 



Adult male — Loral region, with a stripe on each side of crown, a 

 round spot near the ears, a long, narrow stripe on each side of 

 upper hind neck, a narrow collar around lower part of neck, a 

 broad bar across sides of breast in front of wing, middle of 

 scapulars, portion of tertials, a round spot on lesser wing- 

 coverts, tips of some of greater wing-coverts, and a round spot 

 on each side of breast above and below, pure white ; under side 

 of neck and bar on side of breast above and below the white, 

 black ; centre of forehead, crown, and nape, black, bordered 

 on each side with chestnut ; rest of head and neck, dark 

 slate, glossed with violet ; upper parts, leaden blue grading 

 into blue-black on lower part of rump and upper tail-coverts ; 

 wing-coverts, bluish slate ; speculum, bluish violet ; primaries 

 and tail feathers, dusky black ; breast, plumbeous, becoming 

 bluish gray on abdomen, grading into black of the under tail- 

 coverts ; sides and flanks, bright rufous ; bill, slate ; base, olive- 

 gray ; tip, paler ; iris, hazel ; legs and feet, slate ; webs, dusky. 



Measurements — Length, 17.50 inches; wing, 7.80 inches; culmen, 

 I inch; tarsus, 1.40 inches. 



Adult female — Head, neck, and jugulum, grayish brown ; a white 

 spot near the auricular region ; the lores and sides of head, 

 tinged with white ; sides and flanks, grayish brown ; bill and 

 feet, slate ; webs, dusky; iris, brown. 



Voting male — Bright markings of the adult male, indistinct; on the 

 upper parts the white is not well defined and there is no blue- 

 black ; the speculum, dull gray, without gloss ; lower parts, gray- 

 ish white, each feather marked with a transverse spot of grayish 

 brown; the sides and flanks, grayish brown, without rufous; the 

 collar around the lower neck, imperfect. 



Young female — Resembles the adult female, but the upper parts are 

 darker and the lower parts more tinged with brown. 



