i64 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



J. R. Forster, F.R.S., (1772), says, "Animals of Hudson's Bay," that at Cliurchill 

 River the Indians call this species " Har-har-ve}'." 



This Duck is extremely active and lively, very swift too, on the wing, and a 

 most expert diver. I have seen them off Flamborough, in a heavy sea, diving 

 through the advancing wave to emerge on the other side with a shake and then 

 instantly under again ; indeed their diving powers are wonderful. 



Their favourite feeding ground is over rocks, shoals, or skerries, covered with 

 seaweed, or on banks where the long ribbon-like fronds of kelp and dulse and 

 other marine plants sway slowly to and fro. Their food consists of mollusca and 

 Crustacea, small fish, shrimps, and marine insects. I have taken from the stomach 

 shrimps and many small shells, fBucciimmJ , and the beautiful and delicate Patella 

 pelucida, like a Phrygian cap set with torquoise beads. These are no doubt picked 

 singly from the waving fronds of seaweed. Other shells which have been found in their 

 stomachs are Venus ovata. Lacuna vinda, and j-oung specimens oi Mylilus edulis — (Gray). 

 The small crustacean Idotea tricuspidata was on one occasion found by Mr. Gray, 

 the stomach being entirely filled with both entire and mutilated specimens. In 

 Shetland, Saxby says, they subsist entirely on minute periwinkles, picked from 

 the rocks, and although he has examined scores, he has never found any other 

 food. In the crop of one shot at Skye was found examples of Cyclope neritea, a 

 Mediterranean species new to Britain, (" Zoologist," 78, 221). 



In their summer quarters on the tundra they feed on fresh-water insects and 

 mollusca, also various aquatic plants, and also probably on the wild fruits and 

 berries exposed on the melting of the snow. Those only who have visited 

 these Arctic solitudes can estimate the enormous supplies of bird-food, left at 

 the close of autumn, of many kinds of small berries crowding the creeping vege- 

 tation which everyTvhere covers the soil. 



Gatke says, they are the first of the diving Ducks to appear at Heligoland on 

 the approach of a severe winter; they mostly frequent the reef which runs for 

 four miles from the base of the dune in a north-easterly direction, and remain 

 there by preference through the winter. Females and young which come near 

 the rocks often get taken in the Duck nets. 



The late Mr. Graham, of lona, writes : — " In winter you see the flocks of 

 Long-tails far off, twinkling like bright white stars upon the blue waves ; but late 

 in spring they become so dark that at a short distance they look very black." 

 On April i8th " they seemed to be in full summer plumage, the males a fine deep 

 black, something reddish about the wings when the sun caught them, curious 

 little white caps on their heads, and a patch of white visible behind the thigh; 

 the females were dark brown." 



