200 THE SHELDUCK AND SURFACE-FEEDING DUCKS 



and white vermiculations, and narrow conspicuous transverse wavy bars of white. 

 The breast is dull white with dusky mottlings, but the abdomen and under tail- 

 ebverts are much striated. The flanks are dark brown with irregular loops of 

 white. The wing remains unchanged, in so far as the smaller coverts and speculum 

 are concerned. In immature birds the hind-neck, interscapulars and scapulars 

 are of a dark slate, almost black, with strongly marked transverse bars of buff, 

 but the vermiculations of the adult eclipse dress are wanting : while the small wing- 

 coverts have narrow white edges, and the whole of the under surface is marked 

 by heavy dusky striations. The female differs from the male hi eclipse in having 

 the back marked by broad V-shaped loops of buff instead of transverse bars, 

 while the speculum is somewhat duller. The juvenile dress recalls that of the 

 adult male in eclipse rather than of the female, the back being of a dark slate with 

 transverse bars of buff : the speculum at this period is of a dirty brownish grey 

 colour and with lustre of any kind, while the under parts from the fore-breast 

 backward are heavily striated. The young in down differs from the mallard 

 nestling in having the sides of the head brown, and only a narrow superciliary stripe, 

 while the short buff colour bars of the wings and loins are wanting, [w. p. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles is only known with certainty to breed 

 in Scotland, where it has established itself of late years. A fair-sized colony has 

 been known to exist at Loch Leven, Kinross, since 1898, and probably for some years 

 before : it is also well established hi the Orkneys, and has bred in the Shetlands, 

 Skye, S. Uist, and Selkirk. There is no recent proof of its nesting in Ireland. 

 Outside the British Isles it has bred in the Faeroes, and is not uncommon in Iceland; 

 while on the Continent it nests in Norway up to North Finmark and in Sweden to 

 Tornea Lappmark ; hi Finland and Russia it is generally distributed from the Arctic 

 Ocean and White Sea southward, except in the Baltic provinces, the Taurida, and 

 the Astrakhan government. It also breeds in Holland, Denmark, North Germany, 

 Austro-Hungary, and Roumania, while a few pairs nest apparently in the Camargue 

 and certainly hi South Spain. In Asia it ranges north to 72 on the Yenisei and 

 is plentiful on the Kolyma (lat. 69 ), while to the southward it is known to 

 breed in Transcaspia. In North America it has been met with from Alaska, 

 Hudson's Bay territory and Labrador to Dakota, Idaho, and Montana. Its winter 

 migrations extend to Northern Africa and the Egyptian Sudan ; Arabia, India, 

 Ceylon, Burma, China, Formosa, and Japan in Asia ; the Indo-Malay archipelago 

 (Borneo, the Philippines, etc.), Laysan, Hawaii ; while in America it reaches 

 Costa Rica, Porto Rico, and Cuba. It has also occurred in Greenland. [F. o. R. J.] 



