74 • NATURAL niSTOEY COLLECTIOXS IX ALASKA. 



otlier large streams. As a rule they are less gregarious than most other ducks, although often 

 congregating about a good feeding ground. It is a resident along the entire Aleutian chain and 

 about all the other islands of Bering Sea during summer. I found them also along the coast of 

 the Arctic to Point Barrow. They breed upon the Fur Seal Islands. 



Sauer mentions this species as arriving about Unalaska the 1st of October, the season Bil- 

 lings's expedition passed there, and remaining all winter. 



HiSTEiONlCTJS HISTRIONICUS (Linn.). Harlequin Duck (Esk. Tt-td-tsiJc). 



Among the host of water-fowl which flock to the distant breeding grounds of Alaska in spring 

 this elegantly-marked bird is the most graceful and handsomely colored. As if conscious of its 

 beauty, the Harlequin Duck leaves the common-place haunts sought by the crowd of less noble 

 fowls, and along the courses of the clear mountain streams, flowing in a series of rapids into the 

 larger rivers, they consort with the Water-ouzel, Swainson's Thrush, and such other shy spirits as 

 delight in the wildest nooks, even in the remote wilderness of the far north. Dark lichen-covered 

 rocks, affording temporary shelter to the broad-finned Xortheru Grayling or the richly-colored 

 salmon trout as they dart from rapid to i-apid, steep banks overhung by willows and alders, with 

 au occasional spruce, forming a black silhouette against the sky, and a stillness broken only by the 

 voices of the wind and water, unite to render the summer home of these birds, along the Yukon, 

 spots devoted to nature alone, whose solitude is rarely broken, and then only by the soft foot- 

 steps of the savage in pursuit of game. At times, however, the sharp prow of a birch-bark canoe 

 cuts the surface of the stream and is forced far up among the hills. All the denizens of the 

 waters are alarmed; Ouzel, Thrush, and fish take refuge in the first shelter, and the Harlequins 

 rise, and, circling behind the intruder, settle anew in some quiet eddy or poo^, where the current 

 is less violent. Perchance the occupant of the canoe tries to get a shot at some of the ducks 

 ahead, but he is rewarded by seeing his would-be victim disappear under water like a flash to 

 reappear and take wing a moment later, and, to add to his discomfiture, the current whirls him 

 down stream at a pace difficult to control. The hiinter's reward comes, however, when after a 

 sufficient distance is gained the boat is turned about and allowed to glide rapidly downstream. 

 Before long a pair of the ducks, so shy before, but now unwarned, are seen paddling idly about or 

 preening themselves upon some convenient rock. The boat glides silently within range, and at 

 the report the ducks float dead or wounded upon the wat«r. Tliis is repeated until the larger 

 stream is reached and perhaps a dozen birds fall victims. 



It was found at Sitka and Kadiak by Bischofif; in the Aleutian Islands by Dall ; on the Fur 

 Seal group b^- Elliott, and from the Yukon month to Kotzebue Sound, through Bering Straits, 

 by the writer. At Saint Michaels they were rarely detected before the 1st of June, and were 

 seen about the inner bays at rare intervals from then until fall. They are much more com- 

 mon there during Septembei', and a male young of the year, taken October 16, was just changing 

 its first plumage for the dress of the adult male. The examples found on the coast there are 

 merely stragglers from the inland breeding places. 



A male taken June 4 had its toes and tarsi dark olivaceous brown ; webs black ; bill, bluish- 

 black, with a dull bluish horn colored tip; eyes hazel. 



As ari illustration of the variation in the habits of this bird in difierent surroundings, the 

 following notes from the Fur Seal and Aleutian Islands are to the point: 



While at Unalaska, during the last of May and first of June, 1877, I found the Harlequin 

 Ducks very numerous. During May they were found in flocks of various sizes about the heads of 

 the inner bays, usually close to the mouth of some fresh-water stream. They were also found, 

 but in smaller numbers, about the outer bays and in the passes between the islands. On June 5 

 they had united into several very large flocks, numbering several hundred each, and, as earlier in 

 the season, were very shy, taking flight at the first alarm and moving ofl" with a confusion of low 

 gabbling and chattering notes. 



Tijey undoubtedly breed among these islands, and Mr. Dall found them remaining later in 

 spring than most ducks. He found them also not rare at the Shumagin Islands, near the penin- 

 sula of Aliaska, in summer. Mr. Elliott found them common on and around the shores of the Fur 



