I found tlie remains of our common mussel and shrimps.
The flesh of this species is coarse, hard, and fishy.
This Duck is found among the Faroe -Islands; and t i l
notes of Richard Dann, Esq. m reference to this species in
Scandinavia, are as follows :— “ The Long-tailed Ducks are
very numerous on the coasts of Norway and Sweden during
the winter, but are seen in greatest numbers off the coast of
Scona. Towards the middle of March they begin to'- draw
north, and by the latter end of May appear in vast numbers
on the streams and lakes in the mountain-range which divides
Finmark from Swedish Lapland. As the season advances
they take themselves to the more elevated and smaller lakes,
but in Lapland are not generally-found within the range of the
dwarf-birch. I have 'seen great numbers on the Calix lakes.
In the Dofre Fiell, a few- straggling pairs make their appearance
and breed.' They arrived the last week in May,'on the
lakes and swamps within the range of the birch, and ■ con1’
tinned to increase in numbers until the 14th of June, when
I lost sight of them on the lakes Where they had been most
abundant. On ascending, howeverpto^tjie smalllakes in the
valleys still higher up the mountains, and at-an elevation
where the creeping-birch and dwarf-willow can only vegetate*
I again found them m pairs the last week in Ju n e ; the ice
had not then entirely disappeared oil these lakes. In July,
I again lost sight of the females, but frequently found, and
shot the males in the most elevated lakes and small pools in
the snow-mountains. Those I shot were filled with the
larvae of aquatic insects. They, undoubtedly, breed in the
Dofre Fiell. I saw one night as many as twenty males in
a flock fly by. I was not fortunate enough to find the nest,
but got specimens throughout the whole summer.”
This Duck is abimdant in Russia, and in -summer visits
Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. In reference to its high
geographical range, its most common name in northern countries
is the Arctic Duck. The Long-tailed Duck was found
by our Arctic voyagers at Greenland and as far as the North
Georgian Isles. I t was also particularly noticed by Dr.
Richardson, Captain James Ross, and Mr. Ring. The first
coloured representations of this species, in two states of
plumage, are, probably, those of our countryman, Edwards,
plates 156 and 280, both taken from male birds, the first
brought from Hudson’s Bay, in summer plumage; the
Second-from Newfoundland, in the plumage of winter.
I t is well known in North America and the United
States ; its habits are detailed by the Ornithologists of that
country, Messrs- Wilson, Audubon, and Nuttall, and it is
stated to- have been found in winter as far south as Carolina.
Mr. Audubon says, in the course of one of my rambles
along the borders of a large fresh-water lake, near Bras d’or,
in Labrador, on the 28th of July, 1883, I was delighted by
the sight of several young broods of this species of duck, all
carefully attended to by their anxious and watchful mothers.
Not a male bird was on the. lake, which was fully two miles
distant from the sea, and I concluded that in this species, as
in many others,-the males abandon the females after incubation
has commenced.” Both sexes are active, noisy, and
restless.
The adult male in winter has the nail, and the basal half
of the bill black, the intermediate portion pale reddish-
brown ; the irides hazel; the cheeks and ear-coverts, including
the space round the eye, brownish-buff; below this
on each side of the neck an oval patch of dark brown, inclining
to chestnut-brown at the lower margin ; forehead, top
of the head, back, and front of the neck, and the lower part
of the neck all round, below the dark brown patch, pure
white ; the middle line of the back, the rump, and the elongated
tail-feathers nearly black ; scapulars, tertials, and short
outside tail-feathers white; wing-coverts and primaries dark
brownish-black; the secondaries reddish-brown; the whole
of the breast black; belly, sides, flanks, vent, and under
11