626 DUSKY DUCK. 
breast. Though an inhabitant of both continents, little else is known 
of its particular manners than that it swims and dives well; flies 
swift, and to a great height; and has a whistling note. Is said to fre- 
quent the small rivulets inland from Hudson’s Bay, where it breeds. 
The female lays ten white eggs on the grass; the young are prettily 
speckled. It is found’on the eastern continent as far south as Lake 
Baikal, and thence to Kamtschatka, particularly up the River Ochotska ; 
and was also met with at Aoonalashka and Iceland.* At Hudson’s 
Bay, it is called the Painted Duck; at Newfoundland, and along the 
coast of New England, the Lord; it is an active, vigorous diver, and 
often seen in deep water, considerably out at sea. 
The Harlequin Duck, so called from the singularity of its markings, 
is seventeen inches in length, and twenty-eight inches in extent; the 
bill is of moderate length, of a lead color, tipped with red; irides, dark ; 
upper part of the head, black; between the eye and bill, a broad space 
of white, extending over the eye, and ending in reddish; behind the 
ear, a similar spot; neck, black, ending below in a circle of white; 
breast, deep slate; shoulders, or sides of the breast, marked with a 
semicircle of white; belly, black ; sides, chestnut ; body above, black, 
or deep slate; some of the scapulars, white; greater wing-coverts, 
nay with the same ; legs and feet, deep ash; vent and pointed tail, 
lack. 
The female is described as being less, “the forehead, and between 
the bill and eye, white, with a spot of the same behind the ear; head, 
neck, and back, brown, palest on the fore part of the neck; upper part 
of the breast, and rump, red brown; lower breast and belly, barred, 
pale rufous and white; behind the thighs, rufous and brown; scapu- 
lars and wing-coverts, rufous brown; outer greater ones, blackish ; 
quills and tail, dusky, the last inclining to rufous ; legs, dusky.” + 
The few specimens of this Duck which I have met with, were all 
males; and from the variation in their colors it appears evident that 
the young birds undergo a considerable change of plumage before 
they arrive at their full colors. In some, the white spot behind the 
eye was large, extending irregularly half way down the neck; in 
others confined to a roundish spot. 
The flesh of this species is said to be excellent. 
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DUSKY DUCK.— ANAS OBSCURA. — Fie. 303. 
Arct. Zool. No. 469.— Lath. Syn. iii. p. 545.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2880. 
BOSCHAS? OBSCURA, —Janvine.t 
Anas obscura, Bonup. Synop. p. 384. 
Tis species is generally known along the sea-coast of New Jersey, 
and the neighboring country, by the name of the Black Duck, being 
* LATHAM. + Did. 
¢ Having now arrived at the conclusion of a group which holds a very promi- 
nent yank in the ornithology of Northern America, a few general observations 
