364 ANATID.E. 



Harlequin Duck was first noticed as a British Duck in 

 the Ornithological Dictionary of Colonel Montagu, pub- 

 lished in 1802. His descriptions were taken from a pair 

 of birds that had been killed in Scotland, and sent by 

 Lord Seaforth to Mr. James Sowerby, who published co- 

 loured figures of them in 1806, in his British Miscellany, 

 tab. 6, page 11. Mr. Sowerby afterwards received a 

 young female of the same species from Mr. Simmons, who 

 shot it on one of the Orkneys. It is, however, a very 

 rare bird here, and but few occurrences are recorded. Dr. 

 Edward Moore has noticed one that was obtained in 

 Devonshire, in the winter of 1830. Some years since I 

 bought two in the London market during the same winter ; 

 both of them were young females. Mr. Paget has re- 

 corded one that was obtained at Yarmouth ; and the 

 gamekeeper of Sir Philip Egerton shot one, a female, in 

 Cheshire, in December 1840, during a frost. 



It has been taken on the coast of France, according to 

 M. Vieillot, and occasionally in Germany. M. Nilsson 

 says it visits Sweden; it is said to be found in Eussia, 

 and from Lake Baikal to Kamschatka. 



The Harlequin Duck breeds in Iceland ; and the egg 

 figured in Mr. Hewitson's work was brought from that 

 island by G. C. Atkinson, Esq. of Newcastle, " who found 

 a nest containing seven or eight eggs, deposited in a bed 

 of the bird's down, upon the grass, bordering the margin 

 of a shallow lake." The egg is of a pale buff colour, 

 tinged with green, and measuring two inches one-eighth 

 in length, by one inch five-eighths in breadth. This Duck 

 also inhabits Greenland, and the most northern parts of 

 the American continent. Dr. Eichardson, in reference to 

 its habits, says that it haunts eddies under cascades, and 

 rapid streams. It takes wing at once when disturbed, 



