PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 251 



parts are white. Immature birds resemble the females, but are duller in 

 appearance. The young in down are of a dark brown above, paler brown on 

 the flanks and breast, and white on the throat and abdomen, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. Up to the present this duck has not been proved to nest 

 in the British Isles, though it is suspected of having occasionally done so in Northern 

 Scotland, and Saxby believed that it bred in the Shetlands. There are also records 

 of what may have been pricked birds breeding in Yorkshire (Birds of Yorkshire, ii. 

 p. 471). Outside the British Isles it is met with in small numbers in Iceland, and 

 on the Continent breeds from the coniferous tree limit in Scandinavia (lat. 70) 

 south to the high f jeld of the Dovre and File in Norway, and in Sweden to Dalecarlia 

 and Wermland, occasionally even to Smaland. In Finland and Russia its northern 

 range extends to the coniferous tree limit, and it reaches southward as far as lat. 51 

 in the Urals and the Baltic provinces* In Germany it is very local, but has been 

 recorded as nesting from Holstein and Mecklenburg east to Siberia and East Prussia, 

 as well as in Bohemia and Switzerland. Dombrowski's statement that it breeds in 

 the south of the Dobrogea needs confirmation. In Asia its range extends across the 

 continent to Kamtschatka and the island of Saghalien, but it is only found in the 

 forest belt south of the tundra. In N. America it is replaced by a closely allied race. 

 In winter its extreme range extends south to the Straits of Gibraltar and the North 

 African coast (rarely to the Azores) and the Mediterranean ; in Asia to Meso- 

 potamia, North India, Burma, China, Formosa, and Japan ; while the American 

 race reaches Central America and the West Indies. Most birds, however, winter 

 far to the north of these extreme limits. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor from Northern Europe, arriving excep- 

 tionally as early as 26th August, but more usually between 23rd September and 

 29th October ; while as a bird of passage it is recorded between 14th September 

 and 21st November and between 23rd March and 12th June (cf. Clarke, Studies 

 in Bird Migration, 1912, vol. i. pp. 136, 160). Although sometimes recorded hi 

 Ireland in September, it is usually met with only from October onwards, and becomes 

 more .numerous after the middle of December ; departure takes place late in 

 March or early in April, but examples have been recorded as late as July (cf . Ussher 

 and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 209). In Dumfriesshire it is described as " scarce 

 but regular," in North Wales as " common," and in Kent as " not numerous " 

 (cf. Gladstone, B. of Dumfries., 1910, p. 287 ; Forrest, Fauna of N. Wales, 1907, p. 

 289 ; and Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 366). In Yorkshire it is noted that adults, 

 especially adult drakes, are always rare (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 470). 



