253 ANSERES. 



developed j and in the Asiatic form, Fuligula fusca stejnegeri, it is 

 enormously developed and overhangs the bill. The frontal feather- 

 ing is least developed in the European form, more so in the Asiatic 

 form, and most so in the American form. In the European form 

 the nostrils are separated from the frontal feathering on the side of 

 the bill by more than their width ; in the American form the frontal 

 feathering extends on the top of the bill as far as above the beginning 

 of the nostrils ; the Asiatic form agrees with the American form in 

 the former point, and with the European in the latter. 



The Japanese form was described as a new species in 1887 under 

 the name of Oidemia stejnegeri (Ridgway, Man. North Amer. Birds, 

 p. 112) ; but the American form appears to be so intermediate 

 between it and the European form that it can scarcely be regarded 

 as more than subspecifically distinct unless a much larger series than 

 is at present attainable should hereafter prove that the apparent 

 intergradation is not complete. 



245. FULIGULA GLACIALIS. 



(LONG-TAILED DUCK.) 



Anas glacialis, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 203 (1766). 



The Long-tailed Duck has dark axillaries and no white on the 

 wing. It has a small bill (width in front of the nostrils about f inch) . 

 The feathering on the side of the upper mandible approaches within 

 ^ inch of the nostril. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, vi. pi. 444. 



The Long-tailed Duck has long been known to occur on the Kurile 

 Islands and on the coast of Kamtschatka (Pallas, Zoogr. B,osso-Asiat. 

 ii. p. 276), and more recently Mr. Snow has observed that it is the 

 earliest Duck to pass the Kurile Islands on its spring migration to 

 its arctic breeding-grounds. It was first recorded as a Japanese bird 

 from examples procured in January 1865 at Hakodadi, where it is said 

 to be common in winter (Whitely, Ibis, 1867, p. 208). There is an 

 example in the Swinhoe collection obtained by Captain Blakiston at 

 Hakodadi in February (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1877, p. 147), and there is 

 another in the Pryer collection obtained at the same time. I have a 

 third example collected by Mr. Henson in the same locality on the 



