60 Birds of Colorado 
In summer plumage, there is more black about the head and the 
feathers of the back are margined with rufous and are without white. 
Distribution.—A circumpolar species, breeding far north and winter- 
ing south in both hemispheres. In America breeding from Labrador 
to Alaska northwards, south in winter to North Carolina, the Great 
Lakes and northern California and casually elsewhere. 
The Old Squaw is. an occasional winter visitor to north-east Colorado, 
and has been reported on some half-dozen occasions. A pair shot 
on McKay Lake north of Denver, November 13th, 1892, by J. B. 
Sibley, were noticed by Deane. Breninger found one dead near Fort 
Collins (Cooke). One was shot at Loveland, October 16th, 1898, 
another at Calkins Lake, Longmont, October 23rd, 1898, by Bryan 
Haywood, and a third, u male, secured also at Longmont by Judge 
Park, about November 20th, 1903. These are reported by H. G. 
Smith, and are now in the State Collection at Denver. Others from 
the same neighbourhood are noticed by Felger. 
Habits.—The Old Squaw is one of the swiftest flying 
as well as most noisy of our Ducks; it is very common 
in winter on the New England coasts, where it feeds 
chiefly on various mollusca and small fishes; its meat 
is not good. 
Genus HISTRIONICUS. 
Bill very small and short, rounded at the tip, which bears a large 
nail ; nostrils in the basal half of the bill ; feather line across the forehead 
pointed in the middle line in front; wings and tail short; plumage 
variegated with white patches. 
One species only. 
Harlequin Duck. AHistrionicus histrionicus. 
A.0.U. Checklist no 155—Colorado Records—Drew 81, p. 142; 
85, p. 18; Morrison 88, p. 140; 89, p. 165; Cooke 97, pp. 57, 195; 
06 p. 54. 
Description.—Male—Head and neck bluish-black with three white 
patches, one crescent-shaped, in front of the eye, becoming chestnut 
over the eye, a small rounded one, and a crescentic one on the neck, 
behind the eye; middle of the crown black, collar white, a white 
shoulder-patch edged with black; chest and shoulders leaden-blue ; 
belly sooty, sides bright rufous ; rump black with a white spot on either 
side; wing with a steely-blue speculum and four white patches ; iris 
reddish-brown, bill olivaceous, feet greyish-blue. Length 17-0; 
wing 8-0; tail 4:0; culmen 1-10; tarsus 1-30. 
