136 British Diving Ducks 
cases immature Long-tailed Ducks have been mistaken for this species/ Mr. Harting 
includes thirteen as possibly authentic. Robert Gray {B. of IV. of ScotL, p. 394) states that 
he wrote to Major W. Ross-King respecting an adult male which was killed in Aberdeen- 
shire in 1858. H. Saunders (Manual, p. 457) thinks that the specimens figured by James 
Sowerby in his British Miscellany (1806) were probably obtained in Scotland. The best 
authenticated examples are the following : A male found dead by some fishermen on the 
shore at Filey, Yorks, in the autumn of 1862, and now in the collection of Mr. J. Whitaker 
at Rainworth, Notts. On December 2, 1886, three Harlequin Ducks were observed near 
the Farne Islands, and " two young males which were secured are, respectively, in the 
collections of Mr. R. W. Chase and the Rev. Julian G. Tuck " (Saunders' Manual, 
P- 457)- 
I can now add another record which I think is above suspicion. A fine adult male was 
killed near the Fames in December 1882 by one Cuthbertson, and is now in the possession 
of Lord William Percy at Alnwick Castle, where I have seen it. Lord William Percy writes : 
" An old fisherman named Cuthbertson, who kept a public-house, and was clever at knowing 
birds, used always to go with me to the Fames twenty years ago. He had many stuffed 
birds which he had shot himself in the neighbourhood, amongst others the Harlequin, which 
I desired to obtain, but which he was very proud of, and would not sell. He killed it near 
the Inner Farne, and knowing him well, I have not the smallest doubt of the truth of this 
statement. When he died his widow sold the bird to me in 1905."^ 
Iceland. — The species is indigenous and merely changes its habitat to the south of the 
island when Arctic conditions prevail in the north, but it undoubtedly stays in the north 
until late in November and even December, for I have received specimens from Husavik 
killed in these months. It has not been observed eastwards in Spitzbergen, Novaya 
Zemlya, nor in N. Siberia, and appeared to be extremely rare in Norway, since Professor 
Collett does not include it in his list of Norwegian birds. Specimens have, however, 
occurred on the coast in recent years, for there are examples both in the Bergen and 
Christiania Museums. To Sweden it is also only a very rare visitor. Two were taken at 
Claestorp in O. Vingaker (1862), and near Carlskrona in 1893 (Westerlund, PI. II. p. 181); 
one said to have been shot in the Tyrol in 1852 (M. Tschusi) ; two young birds killed 2nd 
March 1902 in Venetian estuary (Arrigoni, Manuale, p. 753). 
Switzerland. — One shot on L. Leman (t) September 12, 1865 (Saunders); also on 
Lakes Morat, Zurich, and Constance, and several in Germany (Naumann, Vdgel. Mittel- 
europas, x. p. 214). 
Asia.S2:\di to occur on the lakes of the Orenburg government and South-west 
Siberia; also on Lake Baikal, south-west shores of Lake Baikal and Bureja Mountains 
(Radde) ; commoner on Upper than Lower Amur (v. Schrenck) ; Stanovoi Mountains and 
Manchuria (von Middendorft). 
1 Mr. J. H. Gurney in Rambles of a Naturalist (p. 263) criticises these records. " Eight are clearly mistakes," he says, "and 
the rest are all doubtful except two, these being the original Lewes specimen and the recent Aberdeen one.'^ 
2 Mrs. Cuthbertson in a letter to me confirms the above fact, and states that her husband shot the bird thirty years ago, and 
that it had not left his possession during his life. Mr. G. Bolam has published his book on the Birds of Northumberland since the 
above was written. He says the bird owned by Lord WiUiam Percy was killed on December 2, 1886. He also states that there 
were three together, and that the two others are the specimens in the collections of Messrs. Chase and Tuck. He records all as 
immatures, and states that he saw the specimen now in the Percy collection when it belonged to Cuthbertson. This is a mistake, 
for the bird in question is a fine adult male. 
