260 
ZOOLOGY. 
to have but little choice whether they alight in muddy pools, quiet millponds, running brooks, 
or in the surf of the ocean. At Fort Steilacoom, where this species first arrives from the 
north in the fall, the individuals are very fat, and in good order for the table. At this time 
they are not at all shy; but by mid-winter they are generally lean, tough, and unsavory; and, 
probably on account of their great powder experience, are much more shy and wary. As 
divers they almost equal the dab-chick in dexterity. I once saw a male that I had just 
wounded dive in clear water, and, seizing hold, by its bill, of a root growing under water, 
remain voluntarily submerged for almost five minutes, until he supposed all danger past, when, 
again ascending to the surface, he paddled off with great rapidity. It is said that loons also 
possess this instinctive cunning, and frequently, when wounded, seize hold of eel grass, &c., 
on the bottoms of ponds, &c., where occasionally, becoming entangled, they die.—S. 
The buffle head, or butter duck, is only a winter resident, though it remains as late as May. 
They frequent both fresh and salt waters, and seem especially fond of rapid rivers.—C. 
HISTRIONICUS TORQUATUS, Bo nap. 
Harlequin Duck. 
Anas Mstrionica, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, I, 1758, 127 ; ed. 12th, I, 1766, 204.— Gmelin,I, £34.— Lath. Ind. Ora. 
II, 1790, 849.— Wilson, Am. Orn. VIII, 1814,139 ; pi. lxxii. 
Fuligula ( Clangula ) hislrionica, Bon. Syn. 1828, 394.— Nuttall, Man. II, 448. 
Fuligula hislrionica, Aud. Orn. Biog. Ill, 1835, 612: V, 1839, 617 ; pi. 297.—In. Syn. 1839, 294 .—Ib. Birds Amer. 
VI, 1843, 374 ; pi. 409. 
Clangula hislrionica, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 489. 
Eislrionicus torquatus, Bonap. Comptes Bendus, XLIII, Sept. 1856.— Baird, Gen. Eep. Birds, p. 799. 
Sp. Ch. — Male. Head and neck all round dark blue. Jugulum, sides of breast, and upper parts, lighter blue, becoming 
bluish black again on the tail covers. The blue of breast passes insensibly into dark bluish brown behind. A broad stripe 
along the top of head from the bill to the nape, and the tail feathers, black. A white patch along the entire side of the 
base of bill anterior to the eye, and passing upwards and backwards so as to border the black of the crown, but replaced 
from above the eye to the nape by chestnut. A round spot on the side of the occiput, an elongated one on the side of the 
neck, a collar round the lower part, of the neck, interrupted before and behind, and margined behind by dark blue, a trans¬ 
versely elongated patch on each side of the breast, and similarly margined, a round spot on the middle wing coverts, a 
transverse patch on the end of the greater coverts, the scapulars in part, a broad streak on the outer web of tertials, and a 
spot on each side the rest of the tail, white ; sides of body behind chestnut brown. Secondaries with a metallic speculum of 
purplish or violet blue. Inside of wing, and axillars, dark brown. 
Female with the head and body above, dark brown ; the chin more plumbeous; the lower part of neck, breast, and under 
parts generally, except the central region, (which is white,) duller and lighter brown; a whitish patch in front of the eye, 
and a rounded spot just behind the ear. 
Length, 17.50; wing, 7.70; tarsus, 1.48; commissure, 1.54. 
Hah. —Northern seacoast of northern hemisphere. 
The beautiful harlequin duck is, in winter, found sparingly on Puget Sound, where I 
obtained three specimens; one of which, in most beautiful plumage, was presented to me by 
Lieutenant Murden, of the United States revenue service, a gentleman to whom I was 
indebted lor many similar favors in other branches of natural history. It seems, when not 
breeding, to be almost exclusively a salt water species, and, although Puget Sound is almost 
as salt at its head as it is near the ocean, it is rarely found more than eighty miles from its 
mouth, L e., about half way up, where the sound is still wide, thus showing a predilection for 
rough water, and no special liking for the placid waters of the quiet inlets and coves near its 
head.—S. 
