The Old-Squaw 



and upper belly dark sooty gray; below white shaded with pale gray on sides. Adult 

 female in winter: Head and neck white; a dark brown patch on head and nape and 

 another on side of neck; upperparts dusky or blackish, varied, especially on scapulars, 

 with considerable light brown or ochraceous; fore-neck and breast light brown above, 

 shading through gray into white of lower parts; tail sharply pointed, but central 

 feathers not lengthened. Bill and feet dusky green; iris yellow. Adult female in 

 breeding plumage: Similar to winter plumage, but head and upper neck dark grayish 

 brown or blackish; a white space about eye and another on the side of the neck; scapu- 

 lars with still more ochraceous. Young: Like adult female in winter, but more 

 uniformly colored above, the males gradually acquiring the ashy scapulars. Adult 

 male length 520.7-584.2 (20.50-23.00); wing 228.6 (9.00); tail 203.2-235 (8.00-9.25); 

 bill 27.9 (1.10); tarsus 33.5 (1.32). Female somewhat smaller, — tail 63.5 (2.50). 



Recognition Marks. — Mallard size; white and sooty brown; head white with 

 ashy and dark patches, or brown with grayish patch; tail (of male) greatly elongated; 

 bill short, black and orange; face full. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: On the ground in tall grass or 

 under bushes near water. Down: Dusky with whitish centers. Eggs: 5 to 7, 10 

 of record; dull grayish green, or light olive-gray. Av. size 53 x 37 (2.09 x 1.46); index 

 70. Season: June. 



General Range. — Northern Hemisphere, breeding chiefly within the Arctic 

 Circle; south in winter to the Mediterranean, Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, and northern 

 Japan; and in America wintering from the Aleutians and the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 regularly to Washington, the Great Lakes and coast of North Carolina, occasionally 

 to California, and rarely to the Gulf States and Florida. 



Occurrence in California. — A rare midwinter visitor coastwise. Records from 

 most of our bays and harbors south to San Diego. 



Authorities. — Newberry (Harelda glacialis)., Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. vi., 

 1857, p. 104 (San Francisco); Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1900, p. 20 (plumage 

 change); Stephens, Condor, vol. xxii., 1920, p. 43 (San Diego). 



THOUGH HIS flight is graceful and strong, it is as a musician that 

 the Long-tailed Duck enjoys preeminence. Of course the interpretation 

 of music depends on both the culture and the mood of the listener. Fisher- 

 folk, weary of their incessant racket, have called our birds Scolders, 

 Aunt Huldys, Old-squaws, and other unpleasant things; but we bird- 

 people are apt to bend an indulgent ear toward the efforts of our favorites, 

 and especially in quarters where merit is unexpected and rare. Sunde- 

 vall, the Swedish (?) naturalist, called the bird the Singing Duck, "be- 

 cause its spring song is both sweet and sonorous." The birds are emi- 

 nently sociable, and a company of twenty individuals, aroused to utterance 

 at the same time, will raise a chorus which may be heard a mile away. 

 The notes are mellow and resonant, but it may be conceded that they 

 have something of a grumbling quality. (nk) h-o (nk) h-leh, o (nk) h-o 

 (nk) h-leh, o (nk) h-o (nk) h-leh may afford a suggestion of the trumpeting 

 of a single individual; but when all are at it at once, the effect is indescrib- 

 ably enhanced. 



1823 



