THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
on either side with black; a white band along the middle of the scapulars, 
breast and belly greyish -brown; flanks chestnut; a white spot at the 
base of the under tail -coverts; wings dark slaty -grey; secondaries dark 
metallic -purplish -blue, forming a speculum; innermost secondaries 
mostly white on the outer web; some of the greater secondary coverts 
and median coverts with a sub -apical white spot; under wing -coverts 
smoky-grey; axillaries ash-brown. Iris dark brown; bill deep lead-blue, 
the nail lighter; legs brown, webs blackish. Total length about 17 inches ; 
bill 1 '2 inch ; wing 7 7 inches ; tail 4 0 inches ; tarsus 1 • 6 inch. 
Adult male in eclipse-plumage (August). — Head and neck sooty-black, all the 
ornamental markings having disappeared except the white ear -spot and 
the white patches which lie between the base of the bill and the eyes, but 
all the feathers are fringed with sooty -black; the black-and-white collar 
round the neck and the black-and-white crescentic patches on the sides 
of the breast, as well as the chestnut sides and flanks, are wanting, and 
the long scapulars are uniform sooty -brown. The adult male in eclipse- 
plumage may be distinguished at a glance from the immature male by the 
colour of the breast and belly, which in the former are dark slaty-grey, 
in the latter whitish spotted with brown. 
Adult female . — General colour of the upperparts and chest dark ash- 
brown; an ill -defined whitish patch in front of and below the eyes, 
a more defined white spot on the ear -coverts; feathers of the breast and 
belly brown with a wide, subterminal white band, giving these parts a 
mottled white and brown appearance; flanks, under wing -coverts and 
axillaries lighter ash-brown. Total length about 16*5 inches; bill 1 • 0 inch ; 
wing 7*5 inches; tail 3 6 inches; tarsus 1 4 inch. 
General distribution.— harlequin -duck inhabits the greater part of 
the Northern Hemisphere, and breeds over a large part of its range except 
in North Europe. It nests in Iceland, and is reported to do so in the Ural ; 
while east of the Lena it is met with from Lake Baikal through the Valley 
of the Amur and Stanovoi Mountains to Kamchatka. In North America 
it is found from Alaska to Greenland up to about 70° north latitude on the 
east coast, and southwards in the mountains of Central California and 
Colorado to about 40°, also in Newfoundland. In winter it visits the Kurile 
Islands and Japan, also California and the United States south to about 
37°. In Iceland it appears to be resident. It very rarely visits north-western 
Europe, but occasional wanderers have been obtained in Sweden and on 
the Swiss Lakes. 
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