600 BRITISH BIRDS. 



a - coiv'-ie. The food of this Duck in winter is almost exclusively shell-fish 

 and crustaceans, but in summer it feeds principally on water-plants of 

 various kinds. Unlike many ducks, the drake does not neglect the female 

 during the breeding-season, and takes his share in the protection and care 

 of the young. To enable him to do this with impunity he moults very 

 early in the season into his plain brown dress, and does not resume his 

 nuptial plumage until the young are able to take care of themselves. 

 When we first met with these birds in the valley of the Petchora, in the 

 middle of June, the drakes had all lost their nuptial dress, and we had seen 

 no signs of its resumption when we left early in August. 



Many of the lakes on the tundra had some sheltered corner where a few 

 stunted willow bushes and dwarf birches formed small patches of cover ; 

 and these were the localities where our Samoyade servant found four nests 

 of the Long-tailed Duck, containing respectively three, five, six, and seven 

 eggs, during the last half of June and in July. Two empty nests, con- 

 taining down only, which we found further north at Dvoinik, were mere 

 hollows in the grass, containing no other lining than down, and were both 

 placed amongst the debris left by a recent flood, doubtless the high- water 

 mark of the river when the ice broke up, on the shores of the inland sea 

 where we found the nests of the Little Stint. The Long-tailed Duck some- 

 times breeds very late. Mr. Eagle Clarke has sent me a young bird, half 

 feathers, half down, which he shot in Iceland on the 16th of September 

 last year. 



The down of the Long-tailed Duck is small, like that of the Teal, and 

 equally devoid of white tips, but it is much browner ; its size prevents 

 any confusion with that of the Pintail or Mallard, though the eggs of 

 these species resemble those of the Long-tailed Duck very closely. The 

 eggs range in colour from pale huffish green to greenish buff, and vary in 

 length from 2'2 to 2*0 inch, and in breadth from 1'6 to T45 inch. 



During winter the Long- tailed Ducks frequent the sea, often at some 

 considerable distance from the shore, but in severe weather they shelter in 

 the quiet bays and fjords. Their food is principally obtained by diving, 

 the birds floating shorewards with the tide, fishing as they go. 



The Long-tailed Duck is about the size of the Wigeon. The adult 

 male in nuptial dress has the head, neck, and upper breast and upper 

 back white, suffused with grey round the eye, with a large spot of deep 

 brown on each side of the head", which shades into brown on the sides 

 of the neck. The back, rump, upper tail- coverts, two central tail-feathers, 

 wings, wing-coverts, breast, axillaries, and under wing-coverts are very 

 dark brown; the upper scapulars are very pale grey, and the lower 

 scapulars, which are much narrowed and elongated, are white; the 

 flanks are pale grey, but the belly, vent, under tail-coverts, and outer tail- 

 feathers are white. Bill, basal half and nail black, remainder orange-red ; 



