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 fi’om 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. In the Dovre
Fjeld, 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 continued to
increase in numbers until the 14tli of June, when I lost
sight of them on the lakes where they had been most
abundant. On ascending, however, to the small lakes in
the valleys still higher up the mountains, and at an elevation
where the creeping-bircli and dwarf-willow can only
vegetate, I again found them in pairs the last week in June;
the ice had not then entirely disappeared on 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 lame of aquatic insects.” The Long-tailed
Duck breeds, but is apparently of very local distribution, in
Spitsbergen; in Novaya Zemlya, however, it is abundant;
and in Russia it breeds throughout the northern districts,
and in some parts of the Ural. In winter it is numerous in
the Baltic; its migrations extending to the coasts of Denmark,
Holland, Belgium, France, and occasionally to the
inland waters of Central Europe. From time to time examples
have been obtained at the mouth of the Rhone ;
along the Riviera ; on the Italian lakes; and in the province
of Yenetia; but its occurrence on the southern and eastern
shores of the Mediterranean has not yet been recorded.
In Asia the Long-tailed Duck breeds throughout the
northern portions of Siberia; and it appears to pass the
winter from Lake Baikal southward to Northern China and
Japan. In North America it is abundant in the Aleutian
Islands, Alaska, and the whole of the Arctic regions as far
as Greenland ; migrating to the coast of California on the
west, and to the Chesapeake on the east, where it is known
by the names of £ South-southerly,’ and £ Old Squaw,’ from
its gabbling note.
The nest of the Long-tailed Duck is generally placed
among low bushes by the edge of fresh water, and is composed
of a few stems of grass with a thick lining of down,
little inferior to that of the Eider. The eggs, of a somewhat
elongated oval form, are of a pale greenish-grey, and
measure about 2-1 by 1*45 in. On a small flat island
in Lake My-vatn, Iceland, Messrs. Shepherd and Upcher
counted more than twenty nests, and observed a Longtailed
Duck and a Scaup sitting together on one which contained
several eggs of the two species.
The food of this Duck consists of small mollusks, crustaceans,
fish, marine insects, and fresh-water insects in
summer; its flesh is coarse, hard, and fishy. Mr. Seebolim
says that this bird is decidedly of a quarrelsome disposition,
and he frequently saw it fighting with its fellows, both on
the wing and on the water. The loud and peculiar note of
the male has already been mentioned.
The adult male in winter, and spring nuptial plumage, has
the nail, and the basal half of the bill black, the intermediate
portion pale rose-colour when fresh, drying in a
few hours to a reddish-brown; the irides varying from
yellow to hazel and red; 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 elongated tail-
feathers nearly black; scapulars, inner secondaries, 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 tail-coverts white; legs and toes pale bluish-lead
colour, the webs almost black. The whole length, without
including the elongated tail-feathers, which are sometimes
nine inches long, is seventeen inches : to the end of the
VOL. IV. 8 M