EIDER DUCK. 



(Fuligula mollissima, Bonap. Synops. 331. Anas mollissima,IjATH. 

 Ind. sp. 35. Temm. Man. dOrn. ii. p. 848. Wilsox, viii. p. 122. 

 pi. 71. fig. 2. and 3. [male and female.] Somateria mollissima, 

 Leach. Richard, and Swains. North. Zool. ii. p. 448. Eider 

 Duck, Penn. Arct. Zool. No. 480. and Brit. Zool. p. 152. t. Q. 

 [male and female.] Great black and white Duck, Edwards, pi. 

 98. Oie a duvet, ou Eider, Buff. Ois. ix. p. 103. t. 6. PI. Enlum. 

 208, and 209. [male and female.] Phil. Museum, No. 2706.) 



Sp. Charact. — Frontal plates of the bill linear-oblong: no specu- 

 lum.— J/a/e black, head, neck, breast, and back white;, front and 

 sides of the crown blue-black. Female wholly palish rufous, 

 broadly barred with black ; one or two narrow white indistinct 

 bands across the wings. 



The Eider Duck, remarkable for the softness of its valu- 

 able down, seems thus purposely provided by nature with 

 a clothing suited to the inclement regions in which it 

 generally dwells. Living mostly out at sea, it is thus 

 enabled to endure the severity of the glacial regions, for 



