The Long-Tailed Duck — Harelda Glacialis (Linnæus)
Like many other of our Ducks this is a species which breeds in the north and only visits us in winter. It is fairly common in the north of Scotland and adjoining islands, and there is some evidence that it may occasionally have stayed to breed in the Shetlands. On the east of England immature examples are sometimes shot, especially in severe winters, and the same may be said for the north of Ireland. Over the rest of our islands it is decidedly a rare bird.
Like most Diving Ducks, its food consists of crustaceans and molluscs, and during the winter it is rarely found inland; in the breeding season, however, it frequents small meres and ponds, feeding largely on aquatic vegetation.
The nest is placed near the water on the ground, and warmly lined with down. The eggs are of a bluish green colour.
In its plumage this species is somewhat peculiar. It assumes in October a black-and-white plumage, in which the head and neck are white except for a brownish grey patch on the cheeks and an oval patch of dark brown on each side of the neck. The upper parts, breast, wing coverts, and central tail feathers, which latter are much elongated, are black. The scapulars, secondaries, outer tail feathers, and under parts white. Bill black, with pinkish band. Legs lead grey. In April, just previous to the breeding season, the white portions of the upper parts are changed, and become of various shades of brown or tawny. The female lacks the elongated tail feathers, is duller, and has the white portions brownish; otherwise she resembles the Drake and undergoes similar changes of plumage. Length, inclusive of tail, 25 in.; wing 8·8 in.