8 THE ANIMALS OF ARCTIC ASIA 



in America than in Asia: in Iceland, where it does not appear in very large 

 numbers, but Beems to be resident, with a marked preference for flowing water, it 

 is called stream-duck. The nest is found on the shores of rapid rivers, well hidden 

 ander willow-bushes or other covert. The bird obtains most of its food from the 

 bottom of such rivers by diving in the roughest and most troubled waters, and 



sists on molluscs, small crustaceans, fish-spawn, insects, and aquatic plants, and 

 during the breeding-season on the larvae of the gnats found in such quantities in 

 places of this description. This duck flies strong and fast, dives splendidly, and 

 nods its head as it swims. It breeds late, the eggs not being laid before the 1st of 

 July. The colour of the male is remarkable, being chiefly greyish blue, with the 

 cheeks, a spot on the ear, a stripe on each side of the nape, and a ring round the 



c, white: the white markings being mostly edged with black. The sides of 

 tli.- body are chestnut, as is a stripe on the breast; while the wings are brown, 

 blue, white, and grey with a purple speculum. The female is much more soberly 

 clad, being dark brown, with a white ear-patch, and a white breast marked with 

 brown undulations. 

 Long-Tailed Equally conspicuous is the long-tailed duck (Harelda glacialis), 



Duck. which appears every winter in immense flocks on the shores of the 

 Baltic and North Sea. Also a diving-duck, this species nests on the Arctic coasts 

 of Europe, Asia, and America, and though most abundant in Siberia, often 

 nests "ii the large inland lakes of Lapland. Its European breeding-area includes 

 ill" lakes and shores of northern Norway, while in other parts of the Continent 

 it probably appears only on migration, which does not take it far to the south. 

 Some winter in Iceland, some in the Hebrides where it is known as the musical 

 • luck, sonic in the Orkneys where it is termed the calloo, many on the mainland 

 of Scotland and the coast of Scandinavia, a few in England, and fewer still in 



many, where it is called the ice-duck. Its southern limits seem to be the 

 Lake of Constance and northern Italy, where a few stragglers occur. This duck 

 measures about 26 inches in length; the males being distinguished by the long 

 and narrow middle tail-feathers. The breeding-plumage of the male is white on 

 the head, the fore part of the neck, and the upper part of the back, the lower part 

 «.! t In- back being dark brown ; the breast is brown, and the rest of the lower-parts 

 whio- : the lores and sides of the face are grey, separated by a white line from the 

 beak, which is lead-colour with an orange band. The characteristic middle tail- 

 Feathers arc black, the outer ones being white, 

 scaup Duck. ^ ie ,scau P (Fuligula marila), another common diving-duck in 



the Arctic regions, winters in thousands in China and Japan, and 

 migrates in the west of its Old World habitat as far south as the Mediterranean, 

 lower Egypi and Arabia. The nest has been found on Loch Leven in Scotland, 



well as in Brunswick, Mecklenburg, and other parts of Germany; but the 

 principal breeding-area of the species is the Arctic zone. This duck feeds more 



mimal than on vegetable matter, diving for molluscs to depths down to 12 feet. 

 On tin German coast it is taken in drift nets of that depth, in the wide meshes 



wind, the birds entangle their heads as they dive. The scaup measures about 



In colour the drake is greenish black with brown wings barred with 



fche b,,cl; is white or speckled, the lower part of the body white, the beak 



