The Harlequin Duck 



knowledge of. A baby Harlequin is as thoroughly at home in wild waters 

 as a baby trout. The trout we may seduce with worm or fly, but until we 

 have devised an equally interesting method for attracting young Harle- 

 quins, our meetings are likely to be infrequent. 



How abundant these Harlequins must really be — somewhere, — I 

 learned from a summer cruise in the waters of Puget Sound, or more ac- 

 curately, Washington Sound, between northern Washington and British 

 Columbia. Here, in June, I found the Harlequins, manifestly non-breed- 

 ing birds, in astonishing numbers. Sometimes to the number of 500 at 

 once we found them playing about the numerous rocks and islets of an ex- 

 tensive archipelago. When surprised on such an occasion, the sound of the 

 bird's rising was like the sound of a storm upon the water. A precisely 

 similar situation, we are told, exists about the islands in northern Alaskan 

 waters, — the Shumagins, the Pribilovs, and the Aleutians; and, in fact, 

 though to a very much lesser degree, down our own coast to Monterey. 



Yet these hosts are mere aggregations of summer idlers, non-breeders, 

 immature birds — they do not attain full plumage until their third year, 

 according to Coues — and aged adults. How much greater, therefore, 

 must be the sum of those normal birds which contemporaneously are lost 

 in the fastnesses of our western mountains! 



We found the summer crowd care-free and playful. Their feeding 

 seems to be largely confined to the kelp-beds, and is both by tipping and 

 diving. It is fair to surmise, therefore, that they subsist chiefly upon the 

 mollusks and small crustaceans which attach themselves to the floating 

 leaves of this plant. When undisturbed the birds sit jauntily upon the 

 water, with partly ruffled crests and with active tails, noticeable for length; 

 but when the word of caution has been passed around, they lie motionless, 

 with the feathers of the head close down and the tail depressed. They are 

 somewhat given to charging about the rocks on exploratory tours and 

 sallies, but they seldom pass the gunner a second time, and have no re- 

 luctance to exchange one feeding ground for another. 



In autumn these nesophilic flocks are augmented by the return of the 

 breeding birds, and there is evidence of a slight retreat to more southern 

 latitudes. In winter, also, there is some little show of birds upon interior 

 waters. But, at best, the impression of Harlequin's rarity can be removed 

 only by a visit to the secluded islets of northern archipelagoes. 



That the Harlequin has nested and still nests in the central Sierras 

 is but another evidence of the exceeding hospitality of this favored region. 

 That its eggs are still unfound in California is a pleasant challenge to the 

 rising generation, and a pledge, by no means solitary, that ornithological 

 interest will not flag in this State of extremest contrasts. 



We are chiefly indebted to Mr. Lyman Belding for such information as 



1827 



