368 ANATIDJE. 



leaves her to perform the arduous, but, no doubt, to her, 

 pleasant, task of hatching and rearing the brood, and, 

 joining his idle companions, returns to the sea-shore, where 

 he moults in July and August." 



An interesting account of the Harlequin Duck appears 

 in the Zoologist for 1850^ from the pen of J. J. Briggs, 

 Esq., of King's Newton, Melbourne, Derbyshire : " On 

 the pool in Melbourne Gardens are a pair of these beau- 

 tiful fowls, which add much to the many attractions of 

 the place. Although they have been kept there for 

 several years, they never bred until the year 1849, and as 

 this is, I believe, one of the very few instances of the 

 bird breeding in this country, it may be interesting to give 

 some account of it. 



" In the grounds above mentioned, at a very consider- 

 able distance from the pool where the birds usually live, 

 and in a retired part, stands an ice-house, against which 

 some thatch-sheaves were placed ; upon these, sheltered 

 from the wet and sun, and at an altitude of about three 

 feet, the pair formed a nest, which was simply a depres- 

 sion in the thatch, made most beautifully soft and warm, 

 by being lined with down plucked from the parent bird. 

 The nest contained eight eggs on the llth of June, which 

 were hatched a few days afterwards. They were very 

 similar in colour to those of the Partridge, but somewhat 

 larger, and when the bird left them to feed, she covered 

 them up closely with a large lump of down. After feed- 

 ing, the male bird accompanied her back to the nest, and 

 then returned to the pool, not taking any share in sitting 

 on the eggs. Several of the young Ducks were reared, 

 but the old female died." 



The adult male has the bill bluish-black ; the irides 

 orange ; forehead, crown, back of the neck, around the 

 eyes, the cheeks, and sides of the neck bluish-black, tinged 



