76 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



small pond; it was lined with a little moss and down; the 5 eggs 

 that it contained were collected on June 26, 1917. He says that 

 down is added to the nest as incubation advances, so that there is a 

 heavy lining of it before the eggs hatch. The down is soft and 

 closely matted; it varies in color from "bister" to "sepia," with 

 inconspicuous, slightly lighter centers ; small mottled breast feathers 

 and dusky tipped belly feathers are usually found in it. 



Eggs. — The spectacled eider lays from 5 to 9 eggs, the smaller 

 sets being apparently commoner than the larger ones. In shape 

 they vary from ovate to elongate ovate, but the prevailing shape is 

 elliptical ovate. The shell is smooth with a slight gloss. The color 

 varies from " deep olive buif " or " olive buff " to '' water green " or 

 " yellowish glaucous." The measurements of 101 eggs in various col- 

 lections average 65.4 by 44,6 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 73 by 45.7, 70.5 by 47.8, and 59.5 by 40.5 milli- 

 meters. 



Young. — Doctor Nelson (1887) says of the young: 



The male is rarely seen after the young are hatched, but the female shows 

 the greatest courage in guarding her brood, as the following incident will 

 show : A brood was swimming away fi'om me, and the female tried to protect 

 them by keeping between the young and myself. I fired two charges of No. 

 12 shot, killing all the young, yet, in spite of the fact that the parent received 

 a large share of the charge each time, she refused to fly, and kept trying to 

 urge her dead offspring to move on, until a charge of larger shot mercifully 

 stretched her among her offspring. Upon removing the skin her back was 

 found to be filled with fine shot, and her desperate courage in defense of her 

 brood shows the strength of parental feeling. Other similar instances attest 

 the courage and devotion of this species. 



Mr. Koren, while collecting for me, near the Kolyma Delta in 

 northeastern Siberia, on July 21, 1916, saw a female spectacled eider 

 swimming in a tundra pool followed by two downy young white- 

 fronted geese, which she had evidently adopted and was carefully 

 guarding; she allowed him to come near enough to photograph 

 them, after which he shot all three of them and sent them to me. 



Doctor Nelson (1887) says: 



The middle of August young birds are frequently seen from a few days 

 old to those nearly ready to take wing. During this month the adult birds 

 pass through the summer molt, and with the half-grown yovmg desert the 

 marshes and tide creeks for the seacoast and outlying rocky islands. 



By September 1 scarcely a single individual can be found on the marshes, 

 and by the 20th they are scarce along the coast. 



Plumages. — The downy young is easily recognized by the shape 

 of the bill and the feathering at its base, which are jus.t as they 

 are in the adult; the bill slopes gradually to a point, with straight 

 edges: the nail at the tip is light colored, but the bill is black in 

 dried skins; the feathering extends to the nostrils and beyond them 



