452 ANATIDJE.
A NSERES. A NA T1DJ‘ •
COSMONETTA HISTRIONICA (LinilSeUS*).
THE HARLEQUIN DUCK.
Fuligula histrionica.
Cosmonetta, Kaup f.— Bill r a t t e r short, converging rap id ly to th e tip , which
is occupied by a large decurved n a i l ; a small lobe on each side a t th e base of
th e u p p e r mandible ; lamellae concealed ; n o strils oblong, median. Wing short,
po in ted , th e first an d second q u ill-fea th e rs n early equal in len g th . Tail of
fourteen ra th e r p o in ted fea th ers, much g rad u a ted . Legs short, an d placed far
b ack ; h in d toe slender, w ith a large lobe ; a n te rio r toes fully webbed.
T h i s h a n d s o m e s p e c i e s , c a l l e d t h e H a r l e q u in , fr om th e
v a r i e t y o f t h e c o lo u r s a n d m a r k in g s in t h e m a l e , i s o n e
* Anas histrionica (male, No. 35), A. minuta (female, No. 36) : Linnaeus,
Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 204 (1766).
+ Cosmonessa (p. 46), Cosmenetta (p. 196), Kaup, N a tu rl. System (1 8 2 .).
There is no o th e r member of th is well-marked genus.
of the rarest of stragglers to our coasts. Its occurrence
in the British Islands was first recorded hy James Sowerby,
who gave coloured illustrations of an adult male and a
female in his ‘British Miscellany,’ pi. 6, p. II (1806),
stating that the specimens had been presented to him by his
“ kind friend Lord Seaforth, who procured them from Scotland.”
Montagu subsequently described these two birds in
his ‘ Ornithological Dictionary’ (1813). Sowerby adds,
“ Mr. Simmons gave me a young female which he shot in
one of the Orkneys.” Whether the two former birds were
really killed in Scotland; or whether the latter was really a
female Harlequin and not a young Long-tailed Duck, it is
now impossible to say; but it may be briefly remarked, that
all the young or female ‘ Harlequins ’ which have from time
to time been recorded, have been proved, where proof was
possible, to he Long-tailed Ducks. Those desirous of details
may consult Prof. Newton’s remarks in ‘ The Ibis,’ 1859,
pp. 162-166, and also an exhaustive criticism hy Mr. J. H.
Gurney, jun., in his ‘ Rambles of a Naturalist, pp. 263 269.
Even examples which have been recorded as males in adult
plumage, have proved to he examples of the American Wood
Duck or some other species. This was undoubtedly the case
with those which Mr. J. J. Briggs described as having bred,
in captivity, at Melbourne in Derbyshire: a statement unfortunately
accepted and published in the 3rd Edition hy the
Author, whose acquaintance with the Harlequin Duck was
limited. Major W. Ross King states that he shot a male
in good plumage in 1858, at Buchan in Aberdeenshire, after
several days’ storm from the north-east; hut, although
stuffed at the time, the bird was subsequently thrown away.
The only authentic example known to the Editor is a male
in the collection of Mr. J. Whitaker, of Rainwortli, which
was rescued hy Mr. Roberts, of Scarborough, from some
fishermen who had found it dead on the shore at Filey, and
were throwing it into the water for a dog to retrieve, in the
autumn of 1862.
There are no authenticated instances of the occurrence of
the Harlequin Duck on any part of the Continent; but there