No. 25.] BIRD NAMES. 87 



of female, I will quote Audubon, who was familiar with the 

 species in its breeding - ground : " The head is dark grayish 

 brown with a patch of grayish white surrounding the eye, but 

 not extending to the bill ; there is a larger patch of the same 

 color on the side of the neck, the hind part of which is similar 

 to the head, the fore part grayish brown, the feathers broadly 

 margined with whitish. All the upper parts are of a dark gray- 

 ish brown, the two lateral tail-feathers edged with white ; the 

 lower parts white, the feathers under the wings slightly tinged 

 with gray." 



Measurements about as follows : Male : with tail fully de- 

 veloped, length twenty-three and a half inches; extent thirty 

 inches. Female : length fifteen to sixteen inches ; extent twenty- 

 eight inches. 



This bird is not popularly regarded as very desirable for table 

 use, though it is relished by many gunners, and I have myself 

 found it as good as some of the Canvas-backs which I have killed 

 on prairie ponds and tried to eat. Its flight is peculiarly swift, 

 irregular, and very swallow-like ; it is a crafty and enduring 

 diver, a lover of cold weather, and eminently a sea-duck, though 

 found on certain inland waters as indicated in list of local names. 



Its range is given in Ridgway's Manual, 1887, as " Northern 

 portions of northern hemisphere ; in America, south in winter, 

 to nearly across the United States." 



LONG-TAILED DUCK, of early as well as late authors : LONG- 

 TAILED HARELD * (Selby's Illust. Brit. Orn.) : SWALLOW-TAILED 

 DUCK, so termed at Hudson's Bay (Fauna Boreali- Americana, 

 1831) : NOISY DUCK, because of its " reiterated cries " (Audubon) : 

 HOUND, a name applied in Newfoundland (the musical gabble 

 of a flock being likened to the cry of hounds). 



Known all along the New England coast as OLD SQUAW, the 

 full-feathered drake being sometimes distinguished, as at "West 

 Barnstable and Fairhaven, Mass., Stonington and Essex, Conn., 

 as OLD INJUN. 



* Harekl is the same as //</</. an Icelandic name for the species. 



