394 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



THE HAELEQUIN DUCK. 

 FULIGULA HISTRION1CA. 



THE first notice of this beautiful bird as a British species appeared 

 in Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, published in 1802. Both 

 sexes are described by that author from a pair that had been shot 

 a few years previously in Scotland, and presented by Lord Seaforth, 

 in whose property they were taken, to Mr Sowerby of London. 

 Coloured figures of these two specimens afterwards appeared in 

 'Sowerby's British Miscellany/ published in 1806. 



The Harlequin Duck has since been included in a catalogue of 

 the Birds of Caithness, prepared by Mr E. S. Sinclair, surgeon, 

 Wick, and published in the statistical account of that parish by 

 the Rev. Charles Thomson, in March, 1841. The specimen is still 

 in that gentleman's private museum. More recently a single 

 specimen appears to have occurred in Banffshire a circumstance 

 alluded to by Mr Yarrell, who remarks that he saw the bird, which 

 was a young one, and was killed in the autumn of 1851.* In 

 addition to these examples, Major W. Ross King, author of ' The 

 Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada,' mentions in his beautiful 

 work that he had a specimen of this rare duck which had been 

 killed in Aberdeenshire ; and on communicating with that 

 gentleman I have been obligingly informed that the bird was a male 

 in very fine plumage, and was shot in 1858. It was apparently a 

 solitary specimen. Messrs Baikie and Heddle, in their catalogue 

 of Orkney Birds, allude to a young female bird of this species 

 which was shot in their district by Mr Simmons, and sent by that 

 gentleman to Mr Sowerby. 



The male Harlequin, from the singularity of its markings, is an 

 unmistakable bird; but the female, especially in its immature 

 plumage, is apt to be confounded with the female of the long-tailed 

 duck, and no doubt has occasionally been mistaken for it. As, 

 however, the species breeds in Greenland, and likewise in Iceland, 

 it is somewhat surprising that it does not oftener occur on our 

 shores, especially as it frequents deep water, and is frequently 

 seen at considerable distances from laud. 



* Since this was written, Mr Elwes has informed me that it has been now 

 ascertained beyond a doubt that Mr Yarrell had, in this instance, mistaken a 

 female long-tailed duck for the harlequin. 



