ANATIX^ — THE DUCKS — SOMATERIA. 



85 





brown ; wing-coverts, remiges, and rectrices plain grayish dusky, the primaries darker ; greater 

 coverts and secondaries scarcely, if at all, tipped with white ; rump nearly plain dusky. Adult 

 female, in autumn : Rich cinnamon-rufous, varied with black much as in the summer plumage ; 

 abdomen and anal region plain brown ; greater coverts and secondaries distinctly tipped with 

 white. Young viale : Head and neck plail^ 

 umber-brown ; upper parts dusky, the feathers 

 bordered with fulvous, especially the scapulars ; 

 rump, greater wing-coverts, remiges, and tail 

 plain dusky ; upper tail-coverts and lower parts 

 barred with pale fulvous and dusky, the ab- 

 domen nearly plain grayish-brown. "Bill 

 pale greenish gray ; iris dull yellow ; feet 

 dull ochre" (Audubon). Young female: Sim- 

 ilar to the young male, but head and neck 

 grayish-buft", finely streaked with dusky. 



Total length, about 20.00-25.00 inches ; 

 wing, 10.50-11.25 ; bill, from base of frontal 

 lobe to tip, in the male, 1.20-1.30 ; tarsus, 1.80- 

 1.86 ; middle toe, 2.20. 



The female of this species may be easily 

 distinguished from that of the Common and 

 Pacific Eiders (S. mollissima and S. V-nigrum) 

 by the very different outline of the feathering 

 at the base of the bill, as explained in the 

 diagnostic table on page 73. 



The King Eider is an Arctic bird very 

 closely resembling in its general habits 

 the two other species of the genns Soma- 

 teria, but nowhere so abundant as they 

 are, although more generally distributed, 

 since it is found on the Pacific shores of 

 America and Asia, where the Common 

 Eider does not occur, as well as on the 

 Atlantic coasts of Europe and America. 



Dr. Bessels mentions the King Duck as one of the species secured in the northern 

 waters of Smith's Sound by the '^ Polaris " Expedition, under Captain Hall ; and Mr. 

 W. H. Feilden, in his notes on the birds procured in the Arctic Expedition of 1875- 

 1876, states that in the end of June, 1876, several flocks of males and females, num- 

 bering from ten to twenty individuals, were seen near Floeberg Beach, lat. 82° 27'. 

 IMost of them fell a prey to the hunters, but those that escaped settled dowTi to breed 

 along the coast ; and several nests were found with fresh eggs between the 9th and 

 the middle of July. 



Mr. Kumlien mentions the arrival of Ducks of this species at Cumberland by 

 the 20th of June ; but they were much less abundant than S. mollissima. They 

 keep apart from all other kinds during the breeding-season. He w^as told by the 

 Eskimos that in some seasons they are much more abundant than in others, and that 

 they came later and left earlier than the Eider. A large proportion of those seen 

 were evidently immature or barren birds, and w^ere not breeding. These Ducks w^ere 

 very common about Disco — breeding, however, farther north. 



Professor Eeinhardt gives this Duck as a resident species in Greenland. Dr. 

 Walker met with it on the coast near the settlement of Godthaab. In the follow- 

 ing Jime he noted its arrival early in that month at its supposed breeding-grounds, 



Female. 



