94 BULLETIN 130, LTNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Land, Ungava Bay, Southampton Island, and Cape Fullerton, in- 

 tergrading at these points with dresseri. West about 100° west 

 longitude, where it may intergrade, somewhere in the Arctic Archi- 

 pelago, with V -nigra. North to northern Ellesmere Land (81° 40') 

 and northern Greenland (82° on the west coast and 75° on the 

 east coast). Represented in Iceland and Europe by closely allied 

 forms. 



Winter range. — South along the coast to Maine and rarely to 

 Massachusetts. North to southern Greenland, as far as open water 

 extends. 



Spring migration. — Early dates of arrival: Labrador, Battle 

 Harbor, May 1; Cumberland Sound, April 30; northern Greenland, 

 Etah, April 20; Wellington Channel, latitude 76°, May 17; Cape 

 Sabine, latitude 79°, May 28; Thank God Harbor, latitude 81°, 

 June 4. Late dates of departure : Massachusetts, April 3 ; Maine, 

 April 6. 



Fall migration. — Early dates of arrival : Maine, October 19 ; Mas- 

 sachusetts, late October. Late dates of departure : Thank God 

 Harbor, November 4 ; Etah, November 1 ; Cumberland Sound, 

 November 17. 



Egg dates. — Labrador: Eight records, Jime 15 to August 2. 

 Greenland : Two records, June 23 and July 2. 



SOMATERIA MOLLISSIMA DRESSERI (Sharpe) 

 AMERICAN EIDER 



HABITS 



Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend 



The eider is a duck of which the Americans should well be proud. 

 Large and splendid in plumage, interesting in courtship display, 

 pleasing in its love notes, susceptible to kind treatment by m-an, 

 and capable of furnishing him with a product of great value; not- 

 withstanding all this, the bird is so incessantly persecuted, espe- 

 cially on its breeding grounds, that it is rapidly diminishing in 

 numbers. If the senseless slaughter is not stayed the eider will con- 

 tinue to diminish until it is extinct. Happily, even now there are 

 signs of a better era. On the Maine coast — the bird's most southern 

 breeding station — there were less than a dozen pair breeding in 

 1905. As a result of protection, however, through the efforts of the 

 Audubon Society, their numbers are now increasing, and Bowdish 

 (1909) in 1908 reported as many as 60 eiders breeding on Old Man 

 Island alone. Farther north the persecution still goes on; on the 

 Nova Scotia coast not more than two or three remain to breed, while 

 on the coast of Newfoundland and of the Labrador Peninsula south 



