250 BRITISH BIRDS 



them year after year, although always robbed of their eggs. AVI i en 

 the young have hatched the parent bird takes them in her beak, 

 and carries them one by one to the 'water. 



Long-tailed Duck. 



Harelda glacialis. 



Head and neck, white with brownish grey cheeks, and below, on 

 each side of the neck, an oval patch of dark brown ; back, rump, and 

 tail-feathers blackish ; long scapulars, inner secondaries, short out- 

 side tail-feathers, belly, and flanks white ; breast, wing-coverts, and 

 primaries brownish black ; bill, rose-colour in the middle, base and 

 tip black ; irides yellow or red ; legs and feet pale lead-colour. 

 Length, twenty-six inches. Female : brown ; stripe above the eye 

 and lower parts white. 



The long-tailed duck has the most elegant figure of the sea and 

 diving ducks, if we except the mergansers, and although not so 

 richly coloured as some species, is a beautiful bird in its white and 

 brown plumage, bright red irides, and rose-coloured bill. During 

 its winter sojourn on our coasts it is exclusively marine in its habits. 

 To the south and east coasts its visits are irregular ; on the west 

 coast of Scotland and in the Hebrides it is common ; in Ireland it 

 is restricted to the north coast. It is more arctic in its distribution 

 than any other duck, and in summer is only to be met with north 

 of the limit of forest growth. In its summer haunts it goes inland 

 to breed, and Seebohm says : ' Probably the explanation of its almost 

 exclusive attachment to salt water in winter is to be found in the 

 fact that it rarely winters in a climate where all the fresh water is 

 not frozen up.' A charming account is given by the same author of 

 the habits of the long-tailed duck in its summer home in the Siberian 

 tundra a vast level region of swamps and lakes, gay with bright - 

 tinted moss and lichen, and brilliantly-coloured arctic flowers. The 

 ducks were abundant and very tame, in strange contrast to their 

 excessively shy and wary disposition on our coasts. The smaller 

 lakes were inhabited by single pairs, the larger sheets of water by 

 several pairs. Each pair appeared to be very jealous of any invasion 

 of its breeding-grounds, and severe battles were frequent between 

 the males. The call of the drake was very peculiar, and often heard, 

 and was a loud, clear cry of three syllables, the middle one prolonged 



