516 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Female. — With the head and body above, dark-brown ; the chin more plumbeous ; 

 the lower part of neck, breast, and under parts generally, except the central region 

 (which is white), duller and lighter brown; a whitish patch in front of the eye, and 

 a rounded spot just behind the ear. 



Length, seventeen and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, seven and seventy 

 one-hundredths; tarsus, one and forty-eight one-hundredths; commissure, one and 

 fifty-four one-hundredths inches. 



Hob. — Northern seacoast of northern hemisphere. 



The Harlequin Duck is very rare in Southern New Eng- 

 land, and is seldom met with here south of the most north- 

 ern portions on its coast. There it is pretty abundantly 

 seen as a winter visitor. It greatly resembles the following 

 in its general characteristics. Its nest and eggs are thus 

 described : 



" The nest is composed of dry plants of various kinds, arranged 

 in a circular manner to the height of three or four inches, and lined 

 with finer grasses. The eggs are five or six, rarely more, measure 

 two inches and one-sixteenth by one inch and four and a half 

 eighths, and are of a plain greenish-yellow color. After the eggs 

 are laid, the female plucks the down from the lower parts of her 

 body, and places it beneath and around them." 



HAEELDA, Leach. 



"Harelda, Leach (1816)," Gray. (Type Anas gktcialis, L.) 

 Bill shorter than the head and tarsus, tapering laterally to the end; the nail 

 very broad, occupying the entire tip ; lateral profile of lower edge of upper mandi- 

 ble straight to near the end, then rising suddenly to the prominent decurved nail; 

 nostrils large, in the posterior half of the bill, their centre about opposite the middle 

 of the commissure; tertials long, lanceolate, and straight; tail pointed, of fourteen 

 feathers, the central feathers very long, equal to the wings; bill with almost no pos- 

 terior lateral upper angle; the feathers of the sides advancing obliquely forwards; 

 feathers of chin reaching beyond the middle of the commissure, or almost to the 

 anterior extremity of nostrils ; tail of fourteen feathers. 



HAEELDA GLACIALIS. — Leach. 



The South Southerly; Old Wife; Long-tail. 



Mat glacialit, Wilson. Am. Orn., VIII. (1814) 93, 96. 

 FuHgula (Eardda) glaciaMi, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 463. 

 Fnligult ghcinlis, Audubon. Om. Biog., IV. (1838) 103. lb., Birds Am., VI 

 (1143) 379 



