HARLEQUIN DUCK 369 



Ma le and Female in First (Juvenal) Plumage: Almost like adult female in winter but inclined 

 to be a little lighter in color on the mantle, scapulars and rump, while the tail-feathers are always 

 blunted at the tips. Sexes not easily told apart until November or December as a rule, although as 

 in most ducks there is much variation in the assumption of secondary sex plumage in the male. 



Iris dark brown. Bill dark plumbeous, like that of the adult female. Legs and feet olivaceous 

 ochre, with webs and back of tarsi black. 



Immature Male: Changes leading to adult plumage begin in November or December and last all 

 winter, the birds of the year never reaching full plumage until their second winter. Probably they 

 are not in the acme of perfection until their third winter. The first changes, which may be seen in the 

 young male as early as October, or perhaps not until late November, start with new dark feathers 

 coming in upon the head and neck, but such a change may be slow at first. Later the process of moult 

 spreads to the sides of the breast, mantle, scapulars and flanks but the immature appearance of the 

 lower parts is carried throughout the first winter. Specimens with an almost adult head-coloring may 

 be found as early as late November. The juvenal wing with the dull speculum easily identifies all 

 males of the first winter and spring, no matter how far advanced the rest of the plumage may be. 



Male ln Eclipse: This very distinct plumage is quite different in appearance from the female plum- 

 age. The general coloring is blackish brown but with more or less of a lead-blue cast to the mantle 

 and scapulars. The lower parts are dingy black, not mottled whitish and brown as in the female. All 

 the white markings of winter plumage are eventually lost except the anterior face-patch and the 

 round ear-patch. The wing retains the brilliant speculum of the adult male. Young males in first 

 eclipse can be distinguished from adult males by the juvenal mottled appearance of the lower parts 

 and the absence of the purple speculum. This plumage is assumed late in the Harlequin and although 

 some may start to change early in July, complete eclipse specimens seem to be rare until late August. 

 The change back to winter plumage is then a rapid process. 



Young en Down: Upper parts uniform brown with poorly defined whitish patches on wings and scap- 

 ular regions, but none on sides or rump. Lower parts white, the white sharply defined on head and 

 neck. There is a characteristic light spot just above and forward of the eye. This species can be dis- 

 tinguished from the young of the Long-tailed Duck by the presence of white patches on the wings 

 and scapulars. 



DISTRIBUTION 



The Harlequin is one of the rarer arctic ducks and little definite information is available as to its 

 breeding areas. This is partly due to the fact that these ducks seek rather secluded places for their 

 nests and also because many of them, presumably the younger birds, do not breed. Furthermore, 

 the female is an obscure-looking bird that is probably frequently overlooked or wrongly identified. 



Breeding Range 

 The regular nesting areas of the Harlequin are scattered all the way from eastern Siberia through 

 North America to Greenland and Iceland. In Asia as in America it shows a preference for the fast 

 mountain streams. Radde (1863) found it not rare about Irkutsk in summer, and Eastern 

 Dybowski {fide Taczanowski, 1893) found it nesting in Transbaikalia. Maak (1859) Siberia 

 speaks of it as common about Lake Baikal and along the Amur, and von Schrenck (1859) also met 

 with it along the latter river and took nests near the mouth of it. On the Ussuri, specimens have been 

 taken from May until September (Buturlin, 1915) and northward throughout the Stanowoi Moun- 

 tains, as well as on the coasts of the Sea of Ochotsk it is fairly common after May 20 (A. T. von 

 Middendorff, 1853). J. A. Allen (1905) also states that it is not rare on the coast and that it is said 



