Ducks booting 159 



Instances of this bird breeding in the United 

 States are recorded. According to Mr. L. Bel- 

 ding, several pair of this duck breed regularly on 

 the Stanislaus River, Calaveras County, California. 

 The bird was seen with young just able to fly 

 near Chief Mountain Lake, Montana, by Dr. 

 Coues. Professor D. G. Elliot saw a brood of 

 eight or nine, in July, 1879, near Wenatchee, Wash- 

 ington, on the upper Columbia, and he secured 

 two of the birds. A very interesting instance of 

 the breeding of a pair of harlequin in confine- 

 ment, in the Melbourne Gardens, is published in 

 the Zoologist of 1850, by Mr. J. J. Briggs. "Al- 

 though kept in confinement for several years, 

 they did not breed until 1849. I" these grounds, 

 at a considerable distance from the pool where the 

 birds had lived, was an ice-house, against which 

 some thatched sheaves had been placed. Upon 

 these, sheltered from wet and sun, at a height of 

 three feet, the pair nested and laid eight eggs, 

 which were hatched about the middle of June. 

 When the female left the eggs she carefully cov- 

 ered them with down. After feeding she was 

 escorted back to the nest by the male, who, 

 however, took no share in sitting on the eggs. 

 Several of the young ducks were reared." 



Small, swift-running streams are favorite loca- 

 tions for the nest, which is placed on the bank, 

 or sometimes in the hollow of a tree. In Iceland, 



