OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 427 



commences towards the end of May or early in June, at the 

 beginning really of the short Arctic summer. Its breeding haunts 

 are said to be on the banks of rivers, and the nest to be placed 

 on the ground close to the water. Only the most meagre details 

 have been recorded, even by observers who profess to have seen 

 the nest, and that and the down are, so far as I can learn, abso- 

 lutely undescribed. The eggs are said to be from eight to ten in 

 number ; they are creamy white in colour, smooth, and rather 

 glossy. They measure on an average 2-2 inches in length by 

 17 inch in breadth. The broods and their parents in some cases 

 apparently keep together all the winter ; but it is not known 

 whether the drake takes any share in bringing the young to 

 maturity. 



Diagnostic Characters. — (Nuptial plumage), FuHgula, with 

 a metallic purple alar speculum, and the scapulary region striped 

 with white, and with broad white crescentic bands across the 

 lower neck and breast (adult male) ; with the axillaries gray, with 

 the under tail coverts dark brown, with a white spot on the fore- 

 head and another behind the eye, and with the bill less than 

 I '5 inch in length (adult female). Length, 14 to 17 inches. 



