165 
Mr. A. Newton on the Harlequin Duck. 
work (pi. xxii. fig. 3). It probably also occurs in Japan, since, 
according to Dr. Schlegel (Faun. Jap., Aves, 141), it is “repre¬ 
sente de grandeur naturelle dans plusieurs recueils japonnais.** 
I take this opportunity of remarking, that in two or three 
asserted instances of the occurrence of Anas histrionica in Great 
Britain, other species seem to have been mistaken for it. In 
‘ The Zoologist* for 1847 (p. 1697) is a note by Dr. Battersby 
of Torquay, that “ a small flock of Harlequin Ducks have fre¬ 
quented our bay, of which I have been fortunate enough to pro¬ 
cure two specimens, a male and a female.” Now, an example 
obtained at that time, out of the same flock, was some years since 
shown me by Mr. Burt, the energetic curator of the Torquay 
Museum, and there can be no question of its being a young Long¬ 
tailed Duck. Again, in ‘ The Zoologist* for 1852 (p. 3331), 
my brother reported that a Harlequin Duck had been killed in 
Banffshire. This he did on the authority of the late Mr. Yarrell, 
whose letter to Lord March, by whom the bird was shot and 
kindly given to my brother, after having been submitted to the 
inspection of that distinguished naturalist, is now before me. 
In this letter Mr. Yarrell says positively that it “ is a young 
female of the ‘Harlequin Duck * in its first winter plumage; ** 
but the bird is still in our possession, and, I regret to say, is not 
the rarity I could wish, there being no doubt that it is only a 
very young example of the Long-tailed Duck. Both this and 
the Torbay specimens are referred to by Mr. Yarrell in the last 
edition of his work (B. B. 3rd ed. vol. iii. p. 368). Further¬ 
more, ‘ The Naturalist* for 1857 (p. 124) contains an extract 
from ‘ The Devonport Journal,’ which was also quoted in f The 
Times* of April 18th, 1857, asserting that a specimen of the 
Harlequin Duck had been recently killed in Warwickshire; but 
Mr. H. Buckley, in the same periodical for 1858 (p. 124), states 
that he made “ particular inquiries** respecting this example, 
and was “ informed on undoubted authority that the bird which 
was mistaken for that rare Duck was, in reality, a female Scaup 
Duck (.Fuligula marila ).** In f The Zoologist* for 1850 (p. 2949) 
is a detailed account of a pair of Ducks said to be the Harlequin, 
which built a nest and hatched a brood in a semi-domesticated 
state at Melbourne in Derbyshire ; and this statement has been 
N 
VOL. I. 
