414 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



difficult to find a place where even Iceland ponies could cross. On these islands 

 were six nests with eggs, three of them only two feet from the water, and placed 

 under the leaves of wild angelica, the others in holes in the hanks close to the 

 water, and protected by a screen of trailing plants. Many of the nests con- 

 tained but little down, though several of the eggs were much incubated. The 

 down of this Duck is much larger than that of most other species we have taken, 

 individual pieces having sometimes a diameter of about If inch. There were 

 many old nests in these holes, showing the islands to have been a favourite 

 breeding-place for years. The dog put the duck off a nest of seven eggs on the 

 9th. This was placed about ten yards from the water, under a birch bush, but 

 we are sure that this is a very unusual distance from water." The eggs are 

 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 1'7 inch in 

 breadth. The down tufts are large, light greyish brown with white centres and 

 white tips. 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, and Messrs. Pearson observed flocks of more 

 than thirty males on several occasions during the summer. 



Diagnostic characters — (Nuptial plumage) Gosmonetta, 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) ; vdth the 

 axillaries grey, with the under tail coverts dark brown, with a white spot on the 

 forehead and another behind the eye, and with the bill less than 1'5 inch in length 

 (adult female). Length, 14 to 17 inches. 



