416 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family ANATID^. Genus HARELDA. 



Subfamily FULIGULINM. 



LONG-TA1LED DUCK. 



HARELDA GLACIALIS (Linneeus). 



Anas glacialis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 303 (1766). 



Harelda glacialis (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 192 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vi. p. 



617, pis. 443, 444 (1875) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iv. p. 446 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. 



Fig. Brit B. pt. xxx. (1895); Salvadori, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 389 (1895); 



Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 26 (1896). 



Fuligula glacialis (Linn.), Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 598 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests 

 and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 173 (1894) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 

 50 pi. 15 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British : The Long-tailed Duck is 

 a fairly common winter visitor to the British Islands. It is only sparingly 

 distributed round the English coasts, especially on the west and south ; and in 

 Ireland it is equally uncommon, being rare in the south and of irregular 

 appearance in the west and north. It becomes most numerous in Scotland, 

 both on the east and west, and in the Orkneys and Shetlands, examples having 

 been met with in summer in the latter locality. Throughout the Hebrides it 

 is a well-known and at times even abundant species. It sometimes visits us in 

 unusual numbers, during exceptionally severe weather in the North Sea basin, 

 as, for instance, during the winter of 1887-88. Foreign : Northern Palsearctic 

 and Nearctic regions, more southerly in winter. It breeds throughout the Arctic 

 zone above the limits of forest growth, and in a similar climate at high elevations 

 in Scandinavia, in Iceland, and perhaps the Faroes. Its northern range appears 

 to extend as high as land is known, and may possibly reach the North Pole. The 

 winter migrations of this species are not very extended, but at that season it 

 visits the Faroes, the Baltic, the North Sea basin, and much more rarely that 

 of the Mediterranean Sea, where it has occurred on the Italian lakes and on the 

 coasts of the Adriatic. Eastwards it visits, during winter, the Caspian Sea, Lake 

 Baikal, North China, and Japan ; whilst on the American Continent it is found at 

 that season as far south as the Great Lakes and the Northern United States. 



Allied forms. None of sufficient propinquity to call for notice. 



