HARLEQUIN DUCK. 237 



crescents and circles of white which ornament its neck 

 and breast. Though an inhabitant of both continents, 

 little else is known of its particular manners than that 

 it swims and dives well ; flies swift, and to a great 

 height ; and has a whistling note. Is said to frequent 

 the small rivulets inland from Hudson's Bay, where it 

 breeds. The female lays ten white eg<p on the grass ; 

 the young are prettily speckled. It is found on the 

 eastern continent as far south as Lake Baikal, and 

 thence to Kamtschatka, particularly up the river 

 Ochotska; and was also met with at Aoonalashka and 

 Iceland.* At Hudson's Bay, it is called the painted 

 duck ; at Newfoundland, and along the coast of New 

 England, the lord ; it is an active vigorous diver, and 

 often seen in deep water, considerably out at sea. 



The harlequin duck, so called from the singularity of 

 its markings, is seventeen inches in length, and twenty- 

 eight inches in extent ; the bill is of moderate length, 

 of a lead colour, tipt with red ; irides, dark ; upper part 

 of the head, black; between the eye and bill, a broad 

 space of white, extending over the eye, and ending in 

 reddish ; behind the ear, a similar spot ; neck, black ; 

 ending below in a circle of white ; breast, deep slate ; 

 shoulders or sides of the breast, marked with a semicircle 

 of white; belly, black; sides, chestnut; body above, 

 black, or deep slate, some of the scapulars, white ; 

 greater wing-coverts, tipt with the same; legs and feet, 

 deep ash ; vent and pointed tail, black. 



The female is described as being less, " the forehead, 

 and between the bill and eye, white, with a spot of the 

 same behind the ear ; head, neck, and back, brown, 

 palest on the fore part of the neck ; upper part of the 

 breast, and rump, red brown ; lower breast and belly, 

 .barred pale rufous and white ; behind the thighs, rufous 

 and brown ; scapulars and wing-coverts, rufous brown ; 

 outer greater ones, blackish ; quills and tail, dusky, the 

 last inclining to rufous; le^s, dusky."* 



The few specimens of this duck which I have met 



* LATHAM. 



