86 
THE HARLEQUIN DUCK. 
to bask in the sun and dress their plumage. On these occasions a shot 
seldom failed to kill several, for they fly compactly and alight close together. 
On the 31st of May, 1833, 1 found them breeding on White Head Island, 
and other much smaller places of a similar nature, in the same part of the 
Bay of Fundy. There they place their nests under the bushes or amid the 
grass, at the distance of twenty or thirty yards from the water. Farther 
north, in Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, they remove from the 
sea, and betake themselves to small lakes a mile or so in the interior, on 
the margins of which they form their nests beneath the bushes next to the 
water. 
The nest is composed of dry plants of various kinds, arranged in a circular 
manner to the height of two or three inches, and lined with finer grasses. 
The eggs are five or six, rarely more, measure two inches and one-sixteenth 
by one inch and four and a half eighths, and are of a plain greenish-yellow 
colour. These measurements differ a little from those of an egg sent to me 
by my friend Mr. Hewitson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and which had been 
found in Ireland by Mr. Atkinson. After the eggs are laid, the female 
plucks the down from the lower parts of her body, and places it beneath 
and around them, in the same manner as the Eider Duck and other species 
of this tribe. The male leaves her to perform the arduous but, no doubt to 
her, pleasant task of hatching and rearing the brood, and, joining his idle 
companions, returns to the sea-shore, where he moults in July and August, 
The little ones leave the nest a few hours after they burst the shell, and 
follow their mother to the water, where she leads them about with the 
greatest care and anxiety. When about a week old she walks with them to 
the sea, where they continue, in the same manner as the Eiders. When 
discovered in one of these small inland lakes, the mother emits a lisping 
note of admonition, on which she and the young dive at once, and the latter 
make for the shores, where they conceal themselves, while the former rises 
at a good distance, and immediately taking to wing, leaves the place for 
awhile. On searching along the shores for the young, we observed, that on 
being approached, they ran to the water and dived towards the opposite side, 
continuing their endeavours thus to escape, until so fatigued that we caught 
four out of six. When at sea, they are as difficult to be caught as the young 
Eiders. 
The flight of the Harlequin Duck is rapid and generally straight. At sea 
it flies at a small height, but when flying over the land, or even when 
approaching it, should there be any suspicion of danger, it rises to a con- 
siderable height. Its food consists of shrimps, small fishes, roe, aquatic 
insects, and mollusca, which it procures by diving. The flesh is dark, and 
