516 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. ^ 



Female. With the head and body above, dark-brown ; the chin more plumbeous ; 

 the lower part of neck, breast, and under parts generally, except the central region 

 (which is white), duller and lighter brown; a whitish patch in front of the eye, and 

 a rounded spot just behind the ear. ' --^y* 



Length, seventeen and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, seven and seventy 

 one-hundredths ; tarsus, one and forty-eight one-hundredths ; commissure, one and 

 fifty-four one-hundredths inches. 



Hob. Northern seacoast of northern hemisphere. 



The Harlequin Duck is very rare in Southern JTew Eng- 

 land, and is seldom met with here south of the most north- 

 ern portions on its coast. There it is pretty abundantly 

 seen as a winter visitor. It greatly resembles the following 

 in its general characteristics. Its nest and eggs are thus 

 described : 



" The nest is composed of dry plants of various kinds, arranged 

 in a circular manner to the height of three or four inches, and lined 

 with finer grasses. The eggs are five or six, rarely more, measure 

 two inches and one-sixteenth by one inch and four and a half 

 eighths, and are of a plain greenish-yellow color. After the eggs 

 are laid, the female plucks the down from the lower parts of her 

 body, and places it beneath and around them." 



HARELDA, LEACH. 



" Harelda, LEACH (1816)," Gray. (Type Anas glacialis, L.) 

 Bill shorter than the head and tarsus, tapering laterally to the end ; the nail 

 very broad, occupying the entire tip ; lateral profile of lower edge of upper mandi- 

 ble straight to near the end, then rising suddenly to the prominent decurved nail ; 

 nostrils large, in the posterior half of the bill, their centre about opposite the middle 

 of the commissure; tertials long, lanceolate, and straight; tail pointed, of fourteen 

 feathers, the central feathers very long, equal to the wings ; bill with almost no pos- 

 terior lateral upper angle ; the feathers of the sides advancing obliquely forwards ; 

 feathers of chin reaching beyond the middle of the commissure, or almost to the 

 anterior extremity of nostrils ; tail of fourteen feathers. 



HARELDA GLACIALIS. Leach. 

 The South Southerly; Old Wife; Long-tail. 



Anas glacialis, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 93, 96. 

 Fuliffula (Harelda) gladalis, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 453. 

 Fuligula gladalis, Audubon. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 103. /&., Birds Am., VI. 

 (1843) 379 



