( 612 ) 

 THE HARLEQUIN DUCK. 



FULIGULA HISTRIONICA, BoNAP. 

 PLATE CCXCVII. Male and Female. 



I HAVE the pleasure of presenting you with three figures of the Har- 

 lequin Duck, one a male in all the perfection of its spring plumage, the 

 bird having attained complete maturity, another male two years old, and 

 an adult female shot in the pairing season. No figures of the adult male 

 or of the female have, I believe, hitherto been published. 



To the south of the Bay of Boston the " Lord and Lady Duck" is 

 rarely seen on our coast ; but from that neighbourhood it becomes more 

 plentiful as you proceed eastward ; and, on reaching Maine and the en- 

 trance of the Bay of Fundy, you may see it at any period of the year 

 among the rocky islands there. It breeds on the Seal, White Head, and 

 Grand Manan Islands, and along the coast of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, 

 Newfoundland, and Labrador. Many, however, proceed much farther 

 north, for specimens were obtained by Captain James Clark Ross in 

 the highest latitudes visited by him. It is extremely attached to certain 

 localities, from which it rarely wanders unless greatly molested, and it 

 thus remains about the islands, or the parts of the coast on which it breeds, 

 unless it be forced off by very severe weather in winter. Few persons 

 shoot it for its flesh ; not that it is inferior as food to other deep-diving 

 ducks, but because it is comparatively small, and difficult to be obtained. 

 Not only is it at aU seasons remarkably shy and vigilant, but even if ap- 

 proached when on rocks, it plunges into the water the moment its keen 

 eye catches a glance of you, dives with all the agility of the Black Guille- 

 mot, and seldom rises within shot. If you shoot at it when passing on 

 wing, even should it be beyond reach, it plunges into the water the 

 moment it perceives the flash, — a habit which is also occasionally ob- 

 served in the Black Guillemot. It being usually found in flocks of one 

 or two families, or of from twelve to fifteen individuals, some one always 

 acts as a watchful sentinel, whose single note of alarm is sufficient to 

 induce the whole to move off" without hesitation. Notwithstanding all 

 this vigilance, however, my party procvired a good number of them at 

 different times, by lying in wait for them under cover of some rocks, in 



