HARLEQUIN DUCK. 
237 
crescents and circles of white which ornament its neck 
and breast. Though an inhabitant of both continents, 
little else is known of its particular manners than that 
it swims and dives well ; flies swift, and to a great 
height ; and has a whistling note. Is said to frequent 
the small rivulets inland from Hudson’s Bay, where it 
breeds. The female lays ten white eggs on the grass ; 
the young are prettily speckled. It is found on the 
eastern continent as far south as Lake Baikal, and 
thence to Kamtschatka, particularly up the river 
Ochotska ; and was also met with at Aoonalashka and 
Iceland.* At Hudson’s Bay, it is called the painted 
duck ; at Newfoundland, and along the coast of New 
England, the lord ; it is an active vigorous diver, and 
often seen in deep water, considerably out at sea. 
The harlequin duck, so called from the singularity of 
its markings, is seventeen inches in length, and twenty- 
eight inches in extent ; the bill is of moderate length, 
of a lead colour, tipt with red ; i rides, dark ; upper part 
of the head, black ; between the eye and bill, a broad 
space of white, extending over the eye, and ending in 
reddish ; behind the ear, a similar spot ; neck, black ; 
ending below in a circle of white; breast, deep slate; 
shoulders or sides of the breast, marked with a semicircle 
of white ; belly, black ; sides, chestnut ; body above, 
black, or deep slate, some of the scapulars, white ; 
greater wing-coverts, tipt with the same ; legs and feet, 
deep ash ; vent and pointed tail, black. 
The female is described as being less, “ the forehead, 
and between the bill and eye, white, with a spot of the 
same behind the ear; head, neck, and back, brown, 
palest on the fore part of the neck ; upper part of the 
breast, and rump, red brown ; lower breast and belly, 
barred pale rufous and white ; behind the thighs, rufous 
and brown ; scapulars and wing-coverts, rufous brown ; 
outer greater ones, blackish ; quills and tail, dusky, the 
last inclining to rufous; legs, dusky.”* 
The few specimens of this duck which I have met 
* Latham. 
