350 CLANGULA HYEMALIS 



Immature Female: Gradually changing until distinguished from first plumage by the more mottled 

 appearance of mantle and scapulars due to the more brownish edging of the new feathers. Dark and 

 light areas on head and neck become more sharply contrasted, and by mid-winter the young female 

 may closely resemble the adult female. The moult, however, may be much delayed and in any case the 

 wings, tail, back, rump and much of the lower parts may remain as in the first plumage. 



Male, Summer Plumage: This remarkable plumage is acquired between February and June by a 

 moult of the head, neck, mantle, scapulars, upper breast and flanks. The general appearance is entirely 

 changed. Only the sides of the head remain white or grayish white; all the rest of the head and neck 

 and upper breast is black-brown. The whole mantle and scapular region is also dark brown, with light 

 edging to the feathers. The flanks are often browner than in winter. A few birds do not acquire this 

 plumage until July and perhaps some never get it at all. 



Male in Eclipse: This is a modification of the spring dress, but the general appearance is the same. 

 The upper mantle is said to be darker than in early summer or spring plumage. Part of this plumage 

 may be carried until late October or early November, but most old males are in complete winter dress 

 by early October, if not before. 



Female, Summer: Upper parts darker, duller and more uniform than in winter as far as determined 

 from small amount of material available. 



Young in Down: Upper surface black with lighter hair-like feathers. Lower parts pure white to 

 dirty white. There is an irregular white area around eye and sometimes a whitish spot at the base of 

 the culmen. Across the upper breast is a darker band. No white spotting on the upper side. 



These young differ from the Golden-eyes and from the Buffle-head by a grayer cheek and throat- 

 patch and by absence of dorsal spotting. They have a superficial resemblance to the young of the 

 Greater and the Lesser Scaups, but the under side is grayer, with no tinge of buff or yellow, while 

 the bill is very much shorter. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The Long-tailed Duck is the most arctic of the whole family; essentially a breeding bird of the tundra 

 areas, it is seldom seen even in winter anywhere south of the north-temperate regions. 



Breeding Range 



In the New World this species nests in small numbers on the Aleutian Islands (L. M. Turner, 1886; 

 Nelson, 1887) and more commonly on other islands of the Bering Sea, as on the Pribilovs (Coues, 

 . 1875; Elliott, 1882; Palmer, 1899), St. Matthew (G. D. Hanna, 1917) and St. Lawrence 



(W. S. Brooks, 1915). It is not an uncommon bird in summer at some points in southern 

 Alaska (J. Grinnell, 1910; Bailey, MS.) but these are probably mostly young non-breeding birds. 

 Still, a pair is said to have nested on Forrester Island, southeastern Alaska (Heath, 1915) and 

 Bretherton (1896) thinks the species probably nests on Kadiak Island. Einarsen (Murrelet, Septem- 

 ber, 1922) has reported the species nesting at Ugashik on the west coast of the Alaskan peninsula. 

 According to Nelson (1887) it is a fairly common breeder on the Yukon and other rivers of the in- 

 terior, but the chief breeding areas are along the western and northern coasts. Nests have been taken 

 as far south as Lake Aleknagik, north of Bristol Bay (U.S. Biological Survey). E. Adams (1878) and 

 L. M. Turner (1886) considered it a not very common nester about St. Michael's, but a more recent 

 observer, F. S. Hersey (1917), says it is an abundant nesting bird there. Farther north along the 

 coasts of Kotzebue Sound, Point Barrow, and eastward to the Canadian border enormous numbers 

 nest regularly (Dall and Bannister, 1869; Nelson, 1887; Seale, 1898; R. M. Anderson, 1915; W. S. 

 Brooks, 1915; etc.). 



