Harlequin Duck 135 
Europe:^ Iceland. — Except on glacial streams and slow-running rivers, it is not 
an uncommon resident (Slater, Manual, p. 68). I found the species numerous on the lower 
Skalfandi Laxa, in the Myvatn district, and on the Sog river in S.W. Iceland. Neither in 
the centre of Iceland nor in the south did I observe the species, but it is said to be fairly 
common on the east and north coast rivers near the coast. It nests generally under bushes 
or in thick sedge or holes in river banks, close to the waters of some swift-flowing river. 
Sometimes in small colonies on islets (Jourdain). 
Asia. — " In northern parts of E. Siberia, commonly from L. Baikal to Saghalien and 
Kamtschatka, north to about 65° N. lat., while he met with the birds in the Verkhoyanski 
mountains and the upper Kolyma basin" (H. E. Dresser, quoting S. A. Buturlin, in 
Eggs of B. of Europe, p. 575). It also breeds abundantly on the Kurile Islands 
(Stejneger, No. 71). 
N. America: Greenland. — H. Saunders says it is most common between lat. 62° and 
lat. 65° N., becoming rarer to the northward. It is a common breeding species in West 
Greenland in summer, as Mr. E. Lehn Schioler has received many specimens of adults and 
immatures. According to Winge it breeds at Godthavn, Vestfjord, and many other places. 
The species was not observed by Mr. A. L. Manniche in N.E. Greenland; but two Ice- 
landers, who had been hunting polar bears on the east coast about the same latitude as 
Iceland, told me that they had seen this duck there in summer. 
The Harlequin breeds on the continent of N. America from N.E. Labrador (Hantzsch, 
/. F. O., 1908, p. 341) across the fur countries to Alaska (Nelson and Turner) and the 
Aleutian Isles, being abundant in Ungava and Hudson Bay. It works far south into 
northern Canada by means of the lake and river systems, and is plentiful in central 
Keewatin as far as Great Bear Lake (Melvill, Spreadborough, &c.), and along both sides 
of the Rocky Mountains. I observed numbers of old and young birds making for the 
coast down to Stikine River, B.C., in October 1908. It breeds commonly throughout 
North British Columbia, but rarely on Lower Eraser (A. Brooks). It nests as far south 
as the Sierra Nevada (lat. 38°), and in Northern Montana, U.S.A. (Coues, Birds of Dakota 
and Montana, p. 653). 
Professor D. G. Elliot found a brood of eight or nine in July 1879, near Wenatchee, 
Washington, and secured two of the birds, and it is somewhat remarkable that this northern 
duck should breed so far south as Calaveras County, California, where, according to Mr. 
L. Belding, several pairs nest every year on the Stanislaus River. 
Reeks records this species as a common summer resident in Newfoundland, and C. H. 
Merriam [Bttll. Nuttall. Orn. Club, viii. No. 4) says it is resident and breeding on the 
island, but in four journeys through the south and central portions of the island, undertaken 
between the months of July and November, I never once saw a Harlequin. My Indians, 
who knew all the birds well, were only acquainted with the Harlequin as a winter visitor 
to the west and south coast. It is probable, therefore, that as a breeding species it is only 
to be found in the northern peninsula and the N.W. and N.E. portions of the island. 
Migration Range. 
Europe: British Isles. — There are twenty-two records of the Harlequin Duck in our 
islands, but there is little doubt that the majority of these are untrustworthy, whilst in many 
^ Sabanaeff s statement that it breeds in the Urals and the Government of Yaroslav is probably incorrect. 
