163 
Mr. A. Newton on the Harlequin Duck . 
trachea I believe no representation has hitherto been given, 
though it has been described by Professor MacGillivray, first in 
the work of Mr. Audubon (Orn. Biogr. v. 617), from which 
the account is quoted by Mr. Yarrell (Brit. B. iii. 266), and 
afterwards in the Professor’s own book (Hist. Brit. B. v. 170). 
As this description seems to be quite as detailed and accurate as 
any I could furnish, and, when taken in connexion with the accom¬ 
panying engravings to afford a sufficiently good idea of its form 
in this species, I need say no more on that head, beyond remark¬ 
ing that, as will be seen from the figure, the bony tympanum of 
the male is uninterrupted by any of those membranous openings 
found in all the other Diving Ducks—except the Eiders*—with 
which I am acquainted, and that in particular it bears no resem¬ 
blance whatever to the same part in either the Golden-eye (A. 
clangula, L.) or the Long-tailed Duck {A. glacialis, L.), the 
typical representatives of the sections Clangula and Harelda , in 
one or the other of which the Harlequin Duck is usually placed 
by most of those ornithologists who subdivide the great and 
natural group of Diving Ducks, and near which two species I 
think all other writers agree in placing it. The specimens of 
the trachea now figured were prepared by me from fine freshly- 
killed examples of this beautiful species obtained last year by 
Mr. John Wolley and myself from a merchant at Reykjavik, the 
capital of Iceland, and, excepting one in the Museum at Haslar 
Hospital, no others, to my knowledge, exist in this country. In 
these examples, when fresh, the small lobe on each side of the 
base of the upper mandible, which seems to have escaped the 
notice of many, if not of most, ornithologists, though it has 
been duly remarked by some, was very apparent; and I am not 
aware that this external character exists in any other of the 
species with which the Harlequin Duck has been usually asso¬ 
ciated. Indeed, in many dried skins which I have examined, this 
peculiarity is very easily overlooked, as, unless care be taken to 
prevent its doing so, it usually shrinks into insignificance as the 
skin dries, whereas while the bird is fresh it is of a prominent 
size, although smaller in the female than in the male. 
* In the Scoters, it will be recollected, there is nothing that can properly 
be called a tympanum. 
