LONG-TAILED DUCK. 361 



in the snow mountains. Those I shot were filled with 

 the larvae of aquatic insects. They undoubtedly breed 

 in the Dofre Field. I saw one night as many as twenty 

 males fly by in a flock. I was not fortunate enough to 

 find the nest, but got specimens throughout the whole 

 summer." 



This Duck is abundant in Russia, and in summer 

 visits Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. In reference to 

 its high geographical range, its most common name in 

 northern countries is the Arctic Duck. The Long-tailed 

 Duck was found by our Arctic voyagers at Greenland 

 and as far as the North Georgian Isles. It was also 

 particularly noticed by Sir John Richardson, Sir James 

 Ross, and Mr. King. The first coloured representations 

 of this species, in two states of plumage, are, probably, 

 those of our countryman, Edwards, plates 156 and 280, 

 both taken from male birds : the first brought from Hud- 

 son's Bay, in summer plumage ; the second from New- 

 foundland, in the plumage of winter. 



It is well known in North America and the United 

 States; its habits are detailed by the ornithologists of 

 that country, Messrs. Wilson, Audubon, and Nuttall, and 

 it is stated to have been found in winter as far south as 

 Carolina. Mr. Audubon says, " In the course of one of 

 my rambles along the borders of a large fresh-water lake, 

 near Bras d'or, in Labrador, on the 28th of July, 1833, 

 I was delighted by the sight of several young broods 

 of this species of Duck, all carefully attended to by their 

 anxious and watchful mothers. Not a male bird was 

 on the lake, which was fully two miles distant from the 

 sea, and I concluded that in this species, as in many 

 others, the males abandon the females after incubation 

 has commenced." Both sexes are active, noisy, and rest- 

 less. 



