651 



'British Birds' (1839); and according to the notes supplied by Mr. Clarke to Mr. Stevenson, it 

 was Harvey who obtained the bird. This Harvey was a bird-preserver and gamekeeper, to whom 

 the greater number of wildfowl shot about Breydon were brought, and who, according to Messrs. 

 Paget, was in the habit of sending up to Leadenhall and Hungerford Markets 1000 head of 

 wildfowl per annum. Anyhow, it was soon after presented by the Bev. G. Stewart, Bector of 

 Caister, to the Norwich Museum, where I lately saw it. It is a male bird, and, of the eight or 

 ten Steller's Ducks preserved there, is the finest specimen ; several pictures have been made of 

 it. Strange to say, no notice is taken of the Norfolk bird in Newman's edition of Montagu's 

 ' Dictionary ;' but a second occurrence at Filby [lege Filey], in Yorkshire, is mentioned." 



We need hardly say that the supposed occurrence of Steller's Duck in the Island of Arran, 

 where it was said to have been obtained on the 11th of June, 1847, is utterly unworthy of 

 credence. 



Steller's Duck has only occurred in France once, as we are informed by Messrs. Degland 

 and Gerbe. " In February 1855, M. Lefevre procured a female killed at Audingon, a village 

 distant eight kilometres from Marquise, between Calais and Boulogne." It has been obtained by 

 Gatke in Heligoland, and is sometimes killed in North Germany, occurring, according to 

 Borggreve, often near Dantzig. In Denmark Kjserbolling records its capture on two occasions : 

 the first, a fine male, was procured in the winter of 1829-30 by Mr. Archiverius Winther from 

 some fishermen at Gilleleie, who caught it in their nets; and by him it was presented to the 

 Boyal Museum. According to Steenberg, an old female was shot at Helsingoer on the 17th of 

 January, 1849. 



With regard to its occurrence in Scandinavia we quote the following remarks from Nilsson's 

 well-known work : — 



" During migration it sometimes occurs on the islands and shores of the Baltic, occasionally 



as far south as Skane It has more often been procured on Gothland and on the coasts of 



Ostergothland and Sodermanland, especially near Landsort in the latter locality, according to the 

 Bev. Mr. Ekstrom. It arrives early in spring (certainly from the south) in company with the 

 stragglers of the Long-tailed Duck, which appear first. From this circumstance it is called by 

 the shore-gunners Alforradare, the Pilot or Messenger (lit. Traitor) of the Long-tailed Duck. 



O 



Higher up in the Baltic, in the Finnish Islands (for instance, about Aland), it is said not to be 

 rare." 



Mr. Bobert Collett, of Christiania, writes to us : — " This Duck occurs annually on the Lap- 

 land coast, where, however, it does not breed regularly, but is still to be seen during the summer 

 at the mouths of the rivers close to the sea. It feeds on mussels." 



In the ' Proceedings' of the Zoological Society of London for 1861 (p. 400), Professor Alfred 

 Newton has figured the egg of the present species; and we here transcribe his notes verbatim: — 



" To the same kind friend, Dr. Baldamus, I owe the opportunity of figuring the egg of this 

 bird, which is one that he received from Von Middendorff, who states (Sib. Beise, II. ii. pp. 234, 

 235) that he discovered it breeding on the flat 'tundras' of the Taimyr. On the 25th of June 

 the nests found contained from seven to nine newly laid eggs, of which he gives in his work 

 representations of three specimens (tab. 23. figs. 3-5). 



" I may perhaps be allowed to add that, towards the end of June and in July 1855, when in 



