LONG-TAILED DUCK: OLD SQUAW. 189 



speed, and mounting again in the air. This is kept up 

 until both are tired. Occasionally other males join in 

 the pursuit after the female, uttering their musical 

 notes, until the lady, finding that she has too much com- 

 pany, retires to some secluded pond with her accepted 

 lover, leaving the others to seek pastures new. In their 

 habit of diving when on the wing during courtship with- 

 out relaxing their speed, they are imitated by no other 

 Duck save the Sprigtail. The nest is composed of grass 

 stems and is lined with dow r n, and the eggs, of an olive or 

 grayish green color, are from five to nine in number. By 

 the last of June the young are nearly all hatched and they 

 remain about the ponds until the middle of August, when 

 they usually go to the shores of the bays. It is one of the 

 last species to leave the Arctic regions in the autumn, and 

 does not depart until the ponds and creeks, and even the 

 sea itself, are frozen over. In certain places, as some of 

 the Aleutian Islands, where the sea may remain open at 

 least to a considerable extent, it stays all winter. 



The summer dress of this Duck is quite different from 

 that of the winter, and is almost a sooty black with a 

 rufous tinge upon the head, neck, and breast; the latter, 

 however, being rather lighter. Sometimes, however, 

 the winter dress, according to Nelson, is retained 

 throughout the nesting season, and there is so much 

 gradation observable among individuals between the two 

 costumes that it is very difficult to procure any in perfect 

 summer dress. As the ice commences to form the birds 

 retreat, and get well out to sea before they begin their 

 migration southward. It is, however, such a hardy bird, 

 and seems so to love a freezing temperature, that it does 

 not hurry, and goes on its way toward the south only as 

 the waters become congealed or blocked with floes of ice, 

 and thus compel it to move on. The Old Squaw breeds 



