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, 
tipped with the same; legs and feet, deep ash; vent and pointed tail, 
black. ; 
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.” t 
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.— Fic. 303. 
Arct. Zool. No. 469.— Lath. Syn. iti. p. 545.— Peale’s Museum, No. 2880. 
BOSCHAS? OBSCURA. —Janvie.t 
Auas obscura, Bonap. Synop. p. 384. 
Tus species is generally known along the sea-coast of New Jersey, 
and the neighboring country, by the name of the Black Duck, being 
* Lataam. : + Ibid. 
{ Having now arrived at the conclusion of a group which holds a very promi- 
fent rank in the ornithology of Northern America, a few general observations 
