THE LONG-TAILED, OR NORTHERN HARELD. 159 



shores, it becomes more frequent, and at the mouth 

 of the Firth of Forth a limited number may gene- 

 rally be seen. Northward still, and around the more 

 distant isles, we believe it is common, and we have 

 several times received a considerable package of 

 them at a time, as if they were at least the birds 

 most easily procured. On the Irish coasts a few 

 specimens are also sometimes obtained. On the 

 coasts of Europe it is met with as a straggling spe- 

 cies, diminishing southward; and though included 

 among the birds of Italy, its introduction there rests, 

 we believe, on one or two immature birds only 

 having been procured ; but according to the con- 

 tinental ornithologists, it sometimes visits the large 

 lakes, both of Germany and Switzerland. In the 

 Old World its breeding stations are Norway, Den- 

 mark, Sweden, Iceland, &c., on the banks of the 

 inland lakes, as we learn from the observations of 

 Hewitson, Atkinson, Dann, and Proctor. In the 

 New World it is recorded by all the American 

 ornithologists, and also by our arctic travellers. 

 Audubon found it breeding in Labrador by the 

 fresh-water lakes. He considers that it ranges as 

 far south as Texas, ' and he also found it at the 

 mouth of the Columbia river, but thinks that it 

 is not met with in the " fresh-water courses," and 

 that authors who state having seen it there, have 

 mistaken the pintail for it, which is abundant in 

 such localities. 



There is an extraordinary variation in the summer 

 and winter dress of this bird. In a specimen pro- 

 cured in summer by one of the whaling vessels, the 



