290 BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



little of the waddling of other ducks, but in walking the small head with 

 its beautiful beak is stretched rather forward, and the long tail pointing 

 downward, with the proportionately slender body and the peculiar color- 

 ing, all give this bird a rather foreign appearance, though certainly not 

 an unlovely one. The plumage of this small duck charmed me particular- 

 ly when I saw it swimming upstream with unparalleled swiftness through 

 the frothing foam . . . winding about through the eddies of the strong- 

 est breakers, and making use of the quieter places in the most skillful 

 way" (Millais, 1913). With regard to their flight, the same writer says: 

 "The beautiful markings of the male of this species are only noticeable 

 when the observer is close at hand, so that they are not the easiest duck 

 to identify except when in flight. The flight, at first somewhat laborious, 

 is very rapid. The short, pointed wings are beaten swiftly . . . when 

 passing up or down stream it zigzags and turns, to accommodate its line 

 to every bend of the stream, however slight. The Harlequin never thinks 

 of cutting off corners, and it would seem that it imagines its life depends 

 on keeping exactly over the water, however much it bends or twists. I 

 have seen Harlequins fly religiously above a bend in a stream that formed 

 almost a complete circle in its course, and yet the birds did not cut 

 across it to shorten their route." 



"If a shot is fired at a flock on the wing they will sometimes plunge 

 from the air into the water and after swimming below the surface again 

 take wing, coming up a hundred yards away seeming, the instant they 

 reappear, to dash from the depths into the air at full speed, leaving the 

 gunner inexperienced in their ways, and who perhaps had thought that 

 by some miraculous chance he had killed the entire flock, to find that he 

 doesn't care for that kind of duck after all. I passed through just such 

 an experience once, and remember yet how disgusted and surprised I 

 was when after steaming up to where the whole flock should have been 

 dead no duck and what may have been their ghosts rising from their 

 watery graves 60 yards away" (Rich, 1907). The species is not now regu- 

 larly sought by gunners and the flesh is reputedly of poor quality. 



On this continent the main breeding grounds of this Harlequin are 

 in Newfoundland and on the Labrador Peninsula; there they build their 

 nests in the vicinity of the most boisterous mountain streams not far 

 from the coasts. The nest is a hollow in the ground under shrubs or 

 bushes, and is scantily lined with grasses and down. The number of eggs 

 varies from 5 to 10 but the usual clutch is 6 or 7; they are light buff or 

 cream colour and average 2.26 by 1.63 inches in size. The incubation 

 period is about three and one-half weeks and is performed by the female 

 alone, while the males gather by themselves on the coasts, moulting into 

 the eclipse during July and August. Millais (1913) remarks on a char- 

 acteristic of the species which is not found in any other of the ducks. He 

 says: "It is presumed that the young are at first fed by the old bird direct 

 from the bill, as newly hatched young always hold their bills upward 

 to the beak of the foster parent, and will not at first pick up food for 

 themselves." O. J. Murie in notes quoted by Bent (1925) says that the 



