HARLEQUIN DUCK 373 



Nehrung, eastern Prussia, and that the bird had simply been overlooked in the past. This statement 

 is regarded as unworthy of belief by Hartert (1920a). Of numerous other records of its occurrence in 

 Germany only the following seem to be at all trustworthy : two in the Berlin Museum marked "Pom- 

 erania" (Hesse, 1915a); one taken near Lubeck, Holstein (Journ. f. Ornith., vol. 26, p. 433, 1878); one 

 found in the market at Karlsruhe, February 28, 1889 (W. and T. Heussler, 1896); one taken near 

 Freising, Bavaria, September, 1893 (von Besserer, 1894); one taken at Gerolzhofen in northern 

 Bavaria (Kress, fide Naumann, 1896-1905). 



Kjarbolling's (1850) remark that the species occurs on the North Sea coast of Denmark and Du- 

 bois's (1886) note that it straggles to the Belgian coast in severe winters are too indefinite to be of 

 value. Paris (1907) gives records of its occurrence at Gravelines, Dunkirk, in the eastern Pyrenees 

 and at Rivesaltes in the Pyrenees, and Rogeron (1903) tells us that the Angers Museum has five or 

 six specimens taken in that vicinity. According to Vayreda y Vila (1883), it has been known to occur 

 in severe winters in the province of Gerona, northeastern Spain. The only record of its occurrence 

 in Italy is of a flock of ten which appeared on March 2, 1902, in the province of Venice, some of which 

 were shot (Falconieri di Carpegna, 1902). A specimen is also said to have been taken in the Tyrol 

 (Tschusi, y?de Dresser, 1871-81). In Switzerland it seems to occur somewhat more frequently on the 

 lakes north of the Alps. It has been taken on Lakes Constance, Zurich and Morat, and there are 

 about six instances (one a summer occurrence!) of its appearance on Lake Geneva (Fatio, 1904). A 

 specimen taken at Goding, Moravia, on February 28, 1867, is in the Vienna Museum. 



Migration 



The Harlequin is essentially a resident species and it may be that only the females and young move 

 south at all in the autumn. At any rate the seasonal movements are so local that little can be said 

 about them. Many of the mountain-breeding birds simply pass down the streams to the coast in 

 winter. This seems to be the case in most localities and even in Iceland the seasonal movements are 

 purely local. On our Atlantic coast, where there is more evidence of real migration than elsewhere, 

 the Harlequin comes late, generally in November, and leaves early, generally in February and some- 

 times in late January. But it seems to move very slowly and does not reach its breeding grounds 

 until well into May or even June. 



GENERAL HABITS 



I am ashamed to admit that I have only twice seen this remarkable and interesting 

 duck alive. Once while traveling near Lake McDonald in what is now part of Gla- 

 cier National Park, Montana, I surprised a little brood two-thirds grown in a small 

 stream. Jumping off my horse I managed to catch one under water (so small and 

 shallow was the brook) as the female led them down a little ripple of water only a 

 few inches deep. Another, a single old male, I saw many years ago just beyond the 

 breakers on the outside of Monomoy Beach, Cape Cod (Massachusetts), in January, 

 where, of course, the species is and always was very rare. So tame was this bird that I 

 could easily have shot it, but there was no way of getting it had I done so, and it 

 went unscathed. 



No doubt this is one of the most remarkable in many respects of all the sea ducks. 

 It has no particular resemblance, either in appearance, habits, distribution or 

 structure to any other group. The striking and almost grotesque color-pattern makes 

 the old male a marked bird wherever he is seen, but the females and immatures 



